SF Red Mission
by Mathematician2
Summary: It's been a while since the Aparoids have been defeated and a new force is threatening the Lylat System. Star Fox has been called to fight, but this time, they have some help from a lone fox with extraordinary powers.
1. Prologue: Biography of a Lone Fighter

** If you read this story, even if it's just the Prologue, please leave a review. I don't care if the review is just one word; I just like to know who's reading my story. **

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**SF Red Mission **

**Prologue: Biography of a Lone Fighter**

_Drifting through the space of the Lylat System is a lone Cornerian pilot in his space fighter. He waits around for days, weeks, even months on end for his commander to contact him and assign him to a mission. He will perform any mission of any price, often risking his own life. He would even sacrifice himself if it was for a good cause. Throughout his missions, he has visited almost every planet throughout the Lylat System, establishing friendships along the way, and gathering allies in case he'd ever need them. After completing a mission, he takes the time to learn more about the planet he is on, studies about unfamiliar cultures, and learns many languages. When not on a mission he resides in several hotels and apartments, mainly in Corneria City; even if his custom-made Cornerian fighter can support living conditions for weeks. This is how he has lived for the past 17 years. He used to be in the Cornerian army, but after a tragic incident many years ago, he decided to work solo._

_He is the only one alive today who knows his true name, but he goes by the name of Red. He's a dark-red colored fox except for 2 white spots on his hands, he has dark-blue eyes, and is slightly shorter than Fox McCloud. During most of the time, especially in battle, Red wears a blood-red, short-sleeve shirt along with long, black pants. The look on his face and his tone are usually serious; although he does know how to have fun by messing with someone's mind every once in a while. His past experiences of waiting around for a mission have given him an incredible patience and those who know him have seen him staring into space or sitting in one spot for hours at a time._

_Although Red was born on Corneria, he isn't of 100 Cornerian ancestry. This could explain his most remarkable trait: his powers. During moments of clear concentration, Red can create an invisible shield on his skin that absorbs any type of energy (including explosions and any type of weaponry). Any energy that he absorbs doesn't hurt him physically, but takes up his energy. His other special skill allows him to gather the amounts of force he has absorbed and shoot it from his hands. The only problem is that his powers are energy-consuming and he gets tired when fighting for too long. But even with this weakness, he is a very valuable fighter and he is very hard to kill._

Red was stationary in his fighter somewhere in the middle of the Lylat System. He was staring at a picture, thinking of that catastrophic day so many years ago. Often he thinks back to that day and how afterwards he was so depressed and how he realized that he eventually could only be content with himself by becoming a private mercenary, killing for a living, and putting his own life in danger. Always, he tries to think to himself, '_It wasn't your fault._' He could see those explosions in his mind. '_There was nothing you could do_.' He never really got himself to fully believe this.

He noticed the flashing red light on his watch. He knows what this means: for the first time in months, he has an assignment. "About time," he said. He put the picture away and pressed the button on his watch.  
"Red, this is your commander. We need your help…"


	2. Chapter 1: Red's Encounter

**Chapter 1: Red's Encounter**

Several months have taken place since the Star Fox team defeated the Aparoids. Not much has happened since then, until now. Something new was finally happening. Marking the start of a new war, the planet of Corneria was under attack by a new enemy. Of course, the members of Star Fox were right in the middle of all of it, along with what remained of the Cornerian Army from the Aparoid War. Corneria City, the world capital of Corneria, has already taken a lot more damage. Many soldiers were attacking the enemies from both the ground and the air. Star Fox, on the other hand, was just outside the atmosphere. Their job was to take out as many as possible from getting to Corneria.

"It's so good to be in battle again!" exclaimed Falco, the ace plot of the team.

"I agree," said Fox, the courageous leader, "How is everyone doing so far?"

"I'm doing okay," said Slippy, the always energetic frog.

"Me too," said Krystal, the blue-colored fox.

The enemies were plentiful and diverse. There were so many different types of them on the battlefield that it would take too long and boring to describe all of them in detail, but they were all fairly small and they all looked like they were machine operated; just like robots. In addition to the fleet of fighters, there was a huge mother ship in the middle of the battlefield from where new fighters continually came into the battle.

"Where did all of these guys come from?" asked Fox.

"I don't know," said Krystal, "but there is something strange about them. I just can't figure out what. The enemies' brain patterns seem very familiar in a way, yet I've never seen anything like them."

"Well whatever they are, they're on my tail!" yelled Slippy, who found himself being chased by several of…whatever these enemies were. Even worse, more fighters seemed to be joining them.

"Again?" said Falco, "Okay, fine, I'm coming to help." He pulled out of the fight he was currently in and headed towards Slippy's Arwing. "Wow, how did you manage to let that many follow you?"

"I…don't…know. Just get rid of them!"

"Got it," Falco got behind the group of enemy fighters and started shooting them down one at a time.

For Krystal, it was hard to target anything in front of her. There were too many, so she was just firing rapidly to clear the path in front of her.

Fox was flying in random places, taking out as many as he could. Suddenly, a small explosion went off right in front of him. He flew right through it and his Arwing was damaged. "Mines! They set out a minefield out here. Be careful everyone,"

The robotic assistant to Star Fox that was ROB made a statement, "A vessel that appears to be a Cornerian fighter is approaching the battle at high speeds."

"Well what do you mean by that?" asked Falco.

A new voice came over the com link as the Cornerian ship approached, "Hey, I heard you might need some help. Are you losing this battle? I think I should turn the tide,"

Having just taken some serious hits on his Arwing, Fox was a little agitated, "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Don't get mad at me. I was sent here to help."

"Well, thanks for coming, but I think this is under control," said Slippy.

The newcomer stated, "Speak for yourself. From this angle, it looks like you're under their control,"

Slippy was distracted enough to allow him to be tailed by several more enemies.

"Oh, no, I'm being followed!"

The unknown Cornerian fighter took off after the targets and started shooting a variety of lasers and fire blasts. He managed to take out the enemies before Slippy received too much damage.

"It's good too be fighting again!" he stated, and then said to Slippy, "Always keep your eyes front and don't get distracted."

Krystal said, "I think we can trust him at least."

"Well thanks," he said.

"But who are you?" Fox repeated.

"You can call me Red," he said, "Usually I work alone, but the people I work for saw it fitting for me to work with your team this time. I'm not sure why, though. Anyway, enough with the small talk, we need to take out this fleet. You got any ideas?"

Fox did happen to notice the mother ship of this fleet, which was spewing out several fighters by the second. "We need to stop that mother ship from releasing those enemies. If we do that, we'll have a better chance of clearing the battlefield."

"Sounds like a plan," Red said, "Some of us can go in and disable it from the inside."

"We'll both go in." To Fox, this was more of an opportunity to find out who this guy really is. "Falco, can you keep them busy?"

"Sure, I'll keep them busy. I might destroy them too while I'm at it,"

Red and Fox found an entrance to the inside of the mother ship. Actually, it was more of a way for the new enemies to escape, but it was good enough. They both started shooting at the departing aircrafts. Eventually, they stopped coming through that exit and diverted to another way out. Red and Fox entered their ships through the force field that kept the atmosphere inside bearable and they both exited their ships.

"So, the famous Fox McCloud," said Red with a grin, "I thought we might meet face to face one day."

Fox noticed how similar they both looked. Despite the fact that Red's fur is a lot redder and is a bit shorter.

"So what's the plan?" asked Red.

"We find the central computer and destroy all in our path."

After a few seconds, Red shrugged and said, "Fair enough,"

As soon as they opened the door to the next room and started running down the hallway, the security alarm went off: "INTRUDERS AT LEVEL 7. ALL ANTI-AIRCRAFT UNITS REPORT TO LEVEL 7. ELIMINATE THE INTRUDERS," As this kept repeating over and over, Fox immediately took out his blaster. It was then that he realized that Red didn't have a weapon. It didn't help that they were now spotted by a group of ground-based fighters that were now heading towards them.

"Um, those machines are coming our way. You do you need a gun, right?"

"Nope," Red responded, "I never use weaponry unless I need to. My hands are my weapons. This should be fun."

This confused Fox, for he was unsure how he would fight well with just his hands. It was then that several enemies were crashing through the doors in the hallways and joined the other group going down the hall. Fox immediately started shooting at them, but their numbers kept increasing. He looked over at Red, who had a grin on his face.

"Is this it?" he said, sounding disappointed. "Fox, I'll distract them and you cover me from behind," he suddenly jumped in the middle of the cluster of fighters.

Fox was surprised at this, but continued shooting at them. Red landed on the ground with his arms extended, and he sent out a tremendous shockwave that destroyed the ones near him. The remaining turned their attention to Red. He picked off those around him one at a time with a series of attacks that included shooting blue beams out of his hands and punching them with a small, fiery explosion. Some retaliated by charging at him while others tried to blast him with red lasers. Anything they hit him with didn't even seem to faze him. After a while, he even started shooting similar red lasers out of his hands. Fox was astonished at Red's powers but was still firing green beams at them that seemed to take them out in 2 or 3 shots. When their numbers started decreasing, Fox moved in closer to the battle. They were almost all gone when a large robotic enemy came in. Red didn't take notice to the larger one standing right behind him. Fox became aware of this and shot a charged blast at it. It had no effect.

"Hey, look out behind you!"

Red was too late to notice as the large robot caught him off guard. It swung its arm and knocked him across the hallway. He immediately got on his feet, but was holding on his left arm where he had been hit.

"Red, are you okay?" asked Fox

For some reason, Red kept the same grin on his face, "I think my arm's bleeding, but no complaints. We've only got this one left to deal with." He immediately jumped in front of Fox, "Charge your blaster, and shoot it when I tell you to."

Fox didn't know where he was going with this, but he did as he said. Just a few feet away from the robot, Red pulled his hand back and stared down at this enemy. The robot suddenly shot him with a powerful white beam. Red stumbled back a little, but was unhurt. "3…2…1…"

Fox shot his charged laser and Red shot the same white beam out of his hand. They both hit their opponent at the same time. It took out its shield but it was still standing. Red didn't want to mess around with this thing anymore. He charged forward and dove straight through the robot and out the other side. It definitely was enough to cause it to break down. Fox was staring at this performance in shock.


	3. Chapter 2: Central Computer

**Chapter 2: Central Computer**

Red slowly got himself up. He had just used up a lot of energy, so he was slightly worn out.

"Well that was sure a display of power," said Fox as he put away his blaster.

Red stood over the pile of debris he created. "Well, whatever gets the job done."

"How did you even do that?" Fox asked. "Shooting fire and lasers out of your hands isn't something you see every day."

"Well, it's a long story, but in short: I was born with these powers," he started breathing a bit heavier as he said, "Shall we continue?"

"Sure," Fox turned to his communicator and said, "Falco, how's the air battle going?"

"It's fine for now. I had to get Slippy out of trouble again and I had to decide on whether or not to save him or not."

"Hey!" yelled the toad, "What was that about?!"

"Other than that," said Krystal, "Everything's okay out here."

"Glad to hear it," said Fox. He turned away from his communicator and saw several doors around him in the hallway and Red was sitting on the ground, resting from the previous fight.

Fox turned back to his communicator. "ROB, how do we get to the central computer?"

A robotic voice spoke back, "The central computer is in level six. You are currently in level seven. You need to find a way to go down a level."

Red slowly stood up, "Well let's go then."

They started running down the hall when Fox asked, "So…how are we getting down to level six?"

Red looked around the hallway while running and saw a rusty spot on the ground. He suddenly stopped in front of the spot. "I think I know a way." He walked over to the spot, raised his fists, and gathered his energy. "Stand back." He slammed his fists on the spot on the ground, creating a blast of energy resulting in a white-colored shockwave. His plan worked as a large hole appeared in the ground that they could use to go down to the lower level.

Once they both fell through, Fox said to ROB, "Okay, now we're in level six. Where exactly in level six is the central computer?"

After a few seconds, ROB said, "Go through the hallway and enter the twentieth door on your left. Warning, enemies detected in your vicinity."

Several fighters that were similar from before were lined up in the hallways. Red was slightly weakened from his previous battle, so Fox had to shoot at them in front while Red sent fire blasts at them from behind.

Red remembered to count the doors and when they eventually got to the correct door, his hands sent several consecutive blasts of energy at the enemies guarding the door and he jumped in front to get there. However, he was caught off guard as one fighter managed to strike him in mid-air when he wasn't shielding himself. He fell on the ground, but Fox quickly saved him by shooting the rest of the enemies. As Red got up, he said, "I guess I got too careless there,"

They entered through the door. No one was inside, but there were multiple monitors and a giant computer in the center. Fox was worried about this, "Uh, I'm not sure how to shut this down."

"This'll be easy enough," said Red.

"Well get started, then," said Fox, "I can't be of much help."

"I won't need it," Red walked over to a monitor and started typing, "I think this thing just needs a good, fatal virus," He pulled a small electronic cartridge from his pocket and connected it to the computer. A small light lit up on the cartridge as he kept typing, "Okay, this should do it," He hit a button on the cartridge and after a few seconds, all the monitors in the room blacked out. The mother ship's shields dissipated and it was no longer sending out enemies to the air battle.

Fox turned back to his communicator, "We disabled the mother ship. How are things on your end?"

Krystal said, "With no more incoming enemies, this battle should wrap up nicely."

"That's great," said Fox.

Red smiled and said, "Let's finish this battle."

"Before we do, let me just say thanks for coming."

"No problem."

They retraced their steps and found their ships where they had left them. After they reentered the space battle, they easily finished off the rest of the fleet and were able to use bombs to destroy the mother ship.

"Good battle," said Red.

"Wait a minute," said Falco, "What are you supposed to be doing here anyway?"

Red said, "I'm supposed to help you. I'll have to stay with your team until this is all over."


	4. Chapter 3: Eavesdropping Falco

**Chapter 3: Eavesdropping Falco**

The Star Fox team and Red were in the Great Fox after their victory. Everyone but Red was in a small conference room where General Peppy was on hologram transmission. Red was told to wait out in the hallway for the duration of this conversation.

"Who is this guy?" Falco demanded, "And why weren't we informed about him before he arrived?"

"We haven't been able to retrieve much information on him," said Peppy, "All we know is that he works for a small Cornerian company that hires private fighters. They assigned him to help us defeat this new enemy. The company he works for isn't in direct correlation with us, so we weren't informed of this until his arrival."

After a pause, Slippy said, "Well, at least we know he's here to help."

Falco interrupted, "For you that may be a good thing. We probably need more help in keeping you out of trouble."

"Hey, I was only distracted for a few seconds-"

"All of that is beside the point." Fox interrupted, "You should've seen what this guy can do…" Fox explained Red's powers to the rest of the team and gave an account of their journey through the mother ship.

"But how did he acquire these powers?" asked Krystal.

"He told me he was born with those powers," Fox shrugged, "I don't understand how if he's Cornerian."

"Our researchers have just found out more about him." said Peppy, "He isn't of pure Cornerian ancestry and there is no one known alive that is directly related to him. Basically, he's a loner who waits for orders from his commander which is somewhat similar to how you all work."

"Eh, I'm not sure I trust him yet," said Falco

"Why do you say that?" Krystal asked.

"This guy comes out of nowhere!" he yelled. "We're not even exactly sure who he works for, and he could even be a double agent! We left him in that hallway by himself; he could be disabling the Great Fox right now!" After these words, Falco got up and left the room.

A few seconds passed when everyone was slightly in shock. Slippy broke the silence, "What's gotten into him?"

"You know how he is," said Fox. "Anyway, let's continue…"

The conference continued while Falco went to see what Red was up to. Soon after he left the room, he could hear Red talking just around the turn of the hallway. Falco stayed out of sight, but stopped where he could hear him. He leaned against the wall and listened.

Red was talking into a communicator on his watch. "…But what about this new enemy? We took out an entire fleet, yet they seem to keep coming. Have our researchers found out anything?"

A deep, gruff voice Falco didn't recognize said, "We haven't found out much. Under the microscope, we have half a specimen from the recent battle that we obtained at a high cost. They couldn't find much about them other than that they're mainly robotic fighters."

"Yeah, I could figure out that much," Red said bitterly, "I assume there's nothing else we know about them. Anyway, what about Star Fox?"

Falco was now listening more carefully.

Red continued, "Why was I assigned to work with them? I usually work alone, or at least I always prefer to."

"We felt that the enemy is too powerful for you to work alone this time. If you fight them by yourself, you're sure to be killed."

"You know I'm not worried about that, Commander. But do you expect Star Fox to cooperate with me? I'm not even sure that they exactly trust me yet."

"Well, what makes you say that?" asked the Commander, "You're trustworthy, aren't you?"

"Well for one thing, one of them is spying on me right now."

Falco froze to the spot he was standing in.

Red turned away from his watch, "How long have you been standing there? Was it a minute, half a minute?" After hearing no response, he turned back to his watch, "I think that should do it for now. Contact me again when you have more useful info." He switched off his communicator.

He turned around and walked around the corner where he could see Falco.

"How did you know I was standing here?" he asked in a nervous tone.

"I spent plenty of time listening to the area around me. You breathe too loudly and this hall makes a good echo." He tapped his foot on the ground, making an echo. "Why were you even standing here? Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting or something?"

Falco didn't respond. Red eventually said, "I get that a lot. I approach everything too professionally so people get suspicious."

"…Sure, whatever."

"Just know that my mission here is to help Star Fox defeat this enemy in any way. For now, I am part of your team, so get used to it."

Saying nothing else, Red turned around and walked away.


	5. Chapter 4: The Second Battle

**Chapter 4: The Second Battle**

The Great Fox 2 had plenty of room to accommodate for Red. There was at least one extra room available for him and there was room in the hangar to dock his ship. He didn't have many possessions to move to his new room; after all, he had always lived in his ship, so he couldn't bear to own too much more stuff than he had.

Red had used a lot of his energy in the last battle and his left arm had been cut up a bit when he got attacked, so he decided to stay in his new room to rest for a while.

It had been a few hours since the conference took place. Slippy was searching the Great Fox's computers for any damage it may have taken recently. Everyone else was in the living room and Falco was watching television, but Fox and Krystal were both concerned about their newfound ally, because they hadn't seen him since their conference.

"Does anyone know where Red is?" asked Fox.

"What?" said Falco, "Oh, I think he locked himself in his room or something." Falco was paying more attention to the television program than to the conversation. "That guy's starting to scare me."

Fox gave Falco a confused look. "…Right, I'm going to check on him. I don't know how long he's been in there."

"I'm going with you," said Krystal.

Red was standing in front of the window in his room- the same spot he had been standing in for the past couple of hours- and he was holding up a picture in front of the window. His mind was set on that catastrophic day so long ago and was also thinking about what was happening right now: the war with this new enemy and how he would work with Star Fox to defeat them…He heard footsteps. He put up the photo just in time for his bedroom door to open. He didn't turn around, but he knew who was there.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked.

"We just came in to see how you were doing," said Fox.

"I appreciate that. How's Falco?"

"What…do you mean?" asked Krystal.

"He tried to spy on me before, but I discovered him before he could get away. I'm sure he doesn't trust me yet."

"Don't mind him," said Fox, "He acts that way a lot. At least the rest of us here trusts you."

A small smile came over Red's face. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"How long have you been standing there?" Krystal asked while she searched his mind for answers.

"I'm not sure, but it's been a few…hours…" He held two fingers to his head and he sat down on his bed. "…You're searching my head. What are you looking for?"

Fox looked over at Krystal.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but…How did you know?"

As he stood up from the bed, he explained, "It's easy. You just have to listen."

Fox said, "I didn't know you can use your powers to sense telepathy."

"My powers? Nah, I've spent quite a bit of time learning from mind-readers about how telepathy works. Also, if you spend as much time as I do in deep thought, you start listening better to what's inside your mind and you can tell when your mind is being listened to by someone else." After a pause, he turned to Krystal, "I understand you're from Cerinia."

Krystal was still slightly in shock. Hearing this much about telepathy from someone else shocked her and hearing about her home planet shocked her even more. "Why would you bring that up?"

Red noticed the expression on Krystal's face. "I'm sorry. It's just that…I've been there before."

Krystal slowly sat down in a seat next to her.

Red continued, "But that was a long time ago, but I can still remember how peaceful that place was. How tranquil and how calm."

Krystal put her hands in her face as her mind flooded with painful memories.

"I'm sorry, Krystal. It just sickens me that the beauty of Cerinia no longer exists."

With tearful eyes, she looked up at Fox who didn't say anything; he also had to sit down. One thought started growing in Krystal's mind: did Red know anything about how Cerinia was destroyed? She slowly got up and left the room.

When the door closed, Fox had an outburst. "Did you really have to say that to her?!"

Red got up from the bed and walked over to the window, "You care about her, don't you?"

Fox was speechless for a few seconds, and then said, "What…what do you mean by that?"

Red replied, "I have spent a lot of time studying other's expressions and I've noticed how you act. It doesn't fool me."

"But isn't this the first time you've seen us both in the same room?"

"Yeah, but it's not that hard to tell. She won't wait for you forever. You should go and talk to her." He went through the other door in his room that led to a bathroom.

After thinking about what he just heard, Fox decided to take Red's advice. He left the room and saw Krystal standing in the hallway in deep thought. He didn't get a chance to say anything because Slippy's voice suddenly came over the intercom. "Everyone, get to your Arwings! Another swarm of enemies is headed our way!"

Krystal was suddenly alert. Fox, knowing he couldn't talk to her right now, just said, "Let's go."

Falco suddenly ran past them. Without stopping, he yelled, "Come on! What are you two waiting for?!"

Fox and Krystal ran after him towards the hangar. Once they got there Fox yelled, "Wait, we need to wait for Red!"

"I'm already here." Somehow, he had already gotten to the hangar before everyone else. "Come on, we have a battle to win!"

One by one, they departed from the Great Fox II and joined the battle which was somewhat similar to the last one. The main difference was that there weren't as many enemies to kill this time. Krystal was a bit shaken up from before, so Fox decided to stay with her so that she wouldn't get into trouble.

Red's flying abilities really showed in this battle. Despite not having a ship as advanced as an Arwing, his skills made up for it. His ship was designed to utilize his powers: in addition to shooting lasers, Red can also shoot the energy that his body has absorbed over time and his own absorbing powers can be amplified by the ship to serve as his shield. That's how his ship can shoot fire blasts in addition to several different types of lasers.

A few minutes into the battle, Slippy was already having trouble. "Oh, no! I'm being chased! I can't get rid of it!"

Falco yelled, "What is the matter with you?! Can't you stay safe for more than a freaking microsecond?!"

Red's ship suddenly zoomed past Slippy's, crashed into the opposing fighter, and he came out unharmed. Laughing, he said, "No offense, Slippy, but you need serious help."

"No offense taken. Thanks for the save."

The battle just started about five minutes ago and already, half of the fleet was defeated. Falco was enjoying the fact that they were dominating the battle. All of the weaker enemies were already destroyed, and slowly, the rest of them were being killed off one-by-one. Falco stayed near Slippy in case he would get in trouble again. The 3 foxes stayed in a second group and teamed up on their enemies. Eventually, the battle was won and no one except Slippy had taken any noticeable damage.

"Well, that was fun!" said Falco.

"The mission is complete, everyone," said Fox.

"_No it isn't_." Red thought as he returned with the others to the Great Fox, "_These were just the first. They'll just keep coming. I on the other hand am not in the best possible situation. Slippy isn't really the best pilot and Falco doesn't even trust me. I'll have to work on that before it becomes too much of a disadvantage_,"


	6. Chapter 5: Announcement

**Chapter 5: Announcement**

Little time has passed since the battle and General Peppy had a shocking announcement for the team. Everyone, including Red, had been called to the conference room to hear it.

Peppy's hologram appeared in the center of the room and he looked slightly disturbed. "Everyone…pay close attention to what I'm about to say."

Falco had his feet up on a table and was starting to get bored already while Slippy was trembling with anticipation; Krystal was staring at Peppy's hologram, worried, and Fox noticed this and remembered that he still wanted to talk with her later. Red was sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He was in deep thought, but was also listening to the message.

Peppy resumed, "We had a full specimen to work with from the recent battle. We preformed a complete examination and…discovered that these creatures may in fact be related to the Aparoids."

Fox stood up and yelled, "What?! How is this possible?!"

Falco suddenly took his feet of the table and was more intent, Slippy awkwardly fell out of his chair, and Krystal now looked more astonished than worried. Red opened his eyes, but his expression stayed the same.

Peppy resumed, "I know this may seem impossible, but that's what we discovered. Although, these creatures aren't Aparoids exactly, but they seem too closely similar for it to be a coincidence. These new creatures are most likely cross-breeds. We know that they are at least half-Aparoid, but we can't determine the other half."

The room was silent for a few seconds before Fox said, "Is that even possible? We destroyed every last one of the Aparoids, unless that self-destruct program didn't work correctly."

"That was one of our theories too," said Peppy, "but Beltino guaranteed us that the program worked. Another theory we came up with is that the half-Aparoids were created after the self-destruct program, although I'm not exactly sure how. That theory is probably false because our examination concluded that the new Aparoids don't have the same self-destructing cells. That is all I have to say for now. I have to attend to other duties." And with that, his hologram vanished.

Everyone in the room was astonished and left with many questions. Even Red seemed disturbed, for he knew first hand of what Aparoids are capable of.

Falco was the first to say anything. "Well, there's no point in staying in this room," and so he left.

Slippy left after quickly saying some gibberish about documents and programs and that he was going to be working for a while.

Red got up to leave, but before he got through the door, he stopped and said, "Remember what I said earlier, Fox. I'll check in with my commander to tell him the news."

Fox and Krystal were left alone, both still in shock about the information they just heard.

"So…what do you make of this?" Fox asked.

"I…I don't know." Krystal now looked worried and upset.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's just- I don't know. This is all too confusing." Krystal was getting more upset by the second. "Whatever these things are, I don't know, it seems like we're getting in quite a mess here." This conversation wasn't working so well.

Fox said, "Yeah, now this, along with what Red said to you earlier about Cerinia?"

Krystal looked up at Fox, and asked "What does that have to do with this?"

"You just seemed upset earlier. I know it's hard, your whole family being killed-" Fox immediately regretted saying that when Krystal stood up and started walking out the door. "Wait, Krystal…" But he was left alone to beat himself up over what just happened.

Krystal was walking through the hallway on the verge of tears. She stopped in a hallway and put her hands in her face. She knew Fox meant well, but she didn't like talking about her past. Again, her mind started flooding with painful memories. Then, she heard someone's voice. Someone was chanting softly in a language she didn't understand, and it calmed her down. She started walking through the hallway and found out it was Red who was chanting; he was standing in his room and looking out of the window.

Once Red found out she was outside his door, he immediately stopped chanting and said, "Well…That conversation didn't last long. I've only been standing here for a whole half a minute…and already, I find you standing there as miserable as ever."

All she could say was, "That song…where did you learn it?"

"You shouldn't be so impressed. For all you know, that little chant could've been about nothing but war and death. You should never be fooled by your senses."

Krystal decided to walk in.

Red went back to looking out the window. "Krystal, there are some places in this small section of the universe that are very peaceful. There are planets in this system that have never seen war or conflict of any kind; planets which are so insignificant that no enemy would ever want to claim them. Star Fox has never seen most of these places, but I have." He turned around and continued, "A long time ago, I was once so depressed to a point where I felt like I had no meaning in my life. Then long story short, I saw hope in the background of violence. I found a meaning to live, which was to help those who have the same troubles as I had in the past…Through my travels, I have been to almost every planet of hope or evil in the Lylat System. Not only that, but I have learned about the history of many planets."

"But…why are you telling me this?" said Krystal.

It was just then that Fox was outside the door and had started listening to this conversation. Red knew he was there, so he stated talking in a language that he knew Krystal could speak. "_Rosuijo A bden xen ak voocj ke we kxheiwx nxuk oei xulo rood kxheiwx_ (Because I know how it feels to go through what you have been through)."

Krystal smiled and replied in Saurian, "_A uffhosauko kxuk, rik nxod tat oei xulo u majjaed ed Sauria_? (I appreciate that, but when did you have a mission on Sauria?)"

"Oh great." Fox said under his breath, "I can't understand a word they're saying."

Red replied in English, "I never had a mission there," but then resumed speaking in Saurian. "_rik ak puj oawxk oawxk oouhj uwe kxuk U couhdot kxo sickiho ev Sauria_ (but it was about eight years ago that I learned the culture of Sauria)." Red quickly realized that he was getting off-topic. "_Um koccadw ooi kxaj rosuijo A tedk nudk ke joo oei odt if cabo A tat_ (I'm telling you this because I don't want to see you end up like I did), when all I was left with was regret and a painful memory."

"What do you mean?" asked Krystal.

"Let me tell you how I see it: in my past, in a violent universe, I discovered a stable environment. I looked around to find peace. You, on the other hand, are already in a stable environment. _Oei zijk xulodk ceebot uheidt ke vadt fouso ook_ (You just haven't looked around to find peace yet)."

"I don't understand."

"I might have been careless before when I talked about Cerinia. For someone who had been in a similar situation as I had, I should've been a little more sympathetic. _A kect Fox ke kho ke semvehk oei. Oei fherurco covk xam kxoho u rak xihk. Oei jxeict kho kucbadw ke xam uwuad_ (I told Fox to try to comfort you. You probably left him there a bit hurt. You should try talking to him again.)"

Without another word, he walked out of the room and walked into Fox who said, "What was all that about?!"

"You have no idea what I just did for you," said Red quietly, "See you later." He walked off with another piece of business to take care of.

Fox calmed down and slowly walked in.

Krystal was a bit nervous after what just happened, "Um, hi Fox. Look, I'm really sorry about before."

"Yeah, me too."


	7. Chapter 6: Establishing Friendships

**Chapter 6: Establishing Friendships**

Red found Slippy in his room which was full of computers and littered with machine parts.

"Hey, Slippy, can I talk to you?"

"Oh, not now. I'm researching the structure of the Aparoids and I'm comparing them to the new Aparoids."

Red walked over the pieces of scrap metal on the floor and looked at the computer screen, "So what have you found out?"

"I haven't found out much more than what Peppy told us. He was right about them being half-Aparoid, but that's about all I can figure out."

On the screen, there were illustrations of both types of Aparoids. On the left side was a picture of the original Aparoid and on the right side was a picture of the half-Aparoid. Slippy was searching through a slideshow that compared and contrasted the two specimens' circuits, composition, and weaponry. He then compared the programming of each, which looked like networks of random lines and symbols that Red couldn't quite understand.

"Do you understand all of this?" Red asked.

"Sure do. If you look here, you can see some similarities," He was scrolling through the slideshow, "and here, I can see slight variations, but here, it's all different."

Red wasn't given enough time to comprehend all of what Slippy was saying. "So, Slippy, this really seems to be your field of interest."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"If you could stop working for a minute, I would like to talk to you."

Slippy reluctantly stopped typing. "What is it, Red?"

Red sat down in front of the monitor next to Slippy. "I know you're very talented in the field of Research and Development," he said as he pulled out a memory cartridge out of his pocket and plugged it into the computer, "but I've noticed how I've had to save you twice in the recent battles." Red started a video on the monitor that showed scenes from the space battles of Slippy getting chased by half-Aparoids.

For Slippy, the video was a bit unnecessary, and seeing himself almost dying due to his own stupidity was a little embarrassing. "Okay, so what's your point? So what if I'm not the best flier?"

"There's nothing wrong with that," said Red, "but I see you more as someone who will start a successful research company or become the Research Director like your father. If you end up in another one of those unfortunate situations while no one is there to help you," he paused, "your potentially successful future will end…along with your life. I can help you improve. If you have any free time, I can train you so that you'll stay out of trouble. I can show you some of the tricks that have kept me alive for more than 15 years. Who knows? Maybe one day, you'll save someone else's life." 

Slippy was a little stunned by this. He knew he wasn't that good, but having the rest of the team to keep him alive may have made him oblivious to the fact that he could die if he ever wasn't fortunate enough. Having this new, disturbing thought in his mind made him eager to get better at flying. "Yeah. Sure, I'll try it. When can we start?"

Red got out of his chair. "How about you finish your research? When you're ready, find me and I'll teach you as much as I can."

"O.K. Thanks."

Red started to leave the room. He stopped at the door and said, "Oh, by the way, Slippy, I need help with creating a computer virus to use against the half-Aparoids. I made a simple computer bug that was able to destroy the mother ship from that first battle, but it has many flaws that may create future conflicts."

"Sure, Red."

Fox and Krystal have been talking in Red's room for a while now. They had gotten into deep discussions about lost family members, the mission on Sauria, and small details on Krystal's past.

Red was walking down the hallway after his talk with Slippy. He was close enough to his room to hear them still in his room talking and he felt a mild sense of accomplishment. He turned around and made his way to the living rooms where Falco was.

Falco was flipping through the channels on the main display. He was basically bored out of his mind because there was nothing good on, then he saw Red walk in. "What're you doing here?" He turned his eyes back to the display and pretended that Red just interrupted a good show.

"I just came to see if you're still extremely paranoid. Do you always act this way to those who are supposed to be your allies?"

"Why do you care, showoff?"

"Showoff? I was just doing my job out there. If you wanted me to let Slippy die, why didn't you just say so?"

Falco was feeling a mix of extreme boredom and annoyance which is never a good combination. He couldn't think of a good comeback.

Red resumed, "Falco, there's no reason for you to act this unreasonable. I aided your team in those last two battles, but you don't seem to believe that I'm on your side. I told you this before: I'm here to help."

"Sure, whatever you say," Falco said sarcastically.

Red was starting to get amused, "All I ever did was drop in unannounced during a battle, so technically you're being a hypocrite."

Falco was starting to get mad.

It was just then that Slippy came in, "Oh, here you are Red. I'm ready to start my training."

Falco snapped, "And what exactly does that mean?!"

Red said to Falco, "I'll make sure that you'll never have to go out of your way again to rescue Slippy. If you ever have another problem, just tell me."

"Well I do have one problem," said Falco, "I'm about to die of boredom!"

"Hm…Try reading a book."

"That'll really make me die of boredom!" Falco yelled.

"Then you're asking the wrong guy. I promised Slippy that I'd train him in flight combat, so if you hear massive explosions outside, then don't worry about it."

"What?!"

"I'm just kidding, Slippy," said Red.

This joke at Slippy's expense was amusing to Falco, "Hey, Red, when training him, just remember that he's gullible, he can't steer properly, and his shooting aim sucks."

"Hey!"

"Sure, Falco, I'll remember."

Red spent the next couple of hours teaching Slippy on how to improve his flying. In addition to perfecting Slippy's steering and shooting, Red gave him tips on how to avoid getting tailed during battle. Red also taught him to always stay focused during a fight and never get distracted, which was one of Slippy's main reasons for getting in trouble during combat.

Eventually, Red was worn-out because he had absorbed several of Slippy's lasers during target practice. After he called off the training session, they made it back to the hangar. As Red exited his fighter, he asked, "So, do you think you're improving?"

"I think so," Slippy replied, "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. Just don't disappoint me in the next battle."

"Oh, believe me, I won't," said Slippy.

"Yeah, we'll see about that."

Little did they know, the next battle wouldn't be too long from now.


	8. Chapter 7: Battle Preparation

**Chapter 7: Battle Preparation**

After Slippy's training session, Red returned to his room, knowing that he had established some type of friendship with each member of the Star Fox team. He walked over to the window. Even though Fox and Krystal were no longer still in there talking, he was sure that he'd brought them a little closer. He started staring out into space. Falco didn't have much reason to hate him anymore. He pulled out the photo that he always kept with him. Slippy's flying skills seemed to be improving and he was coming out of the 'incompetent' stage. He placed the photo in front of the window. His own depression was under control, as usual. Leaving the photo on the window, he lied down on his bed. Exhausted from the recent events, he fell asleep.

Hours later, Falco was asleep on the couch with the television program still on. ROB came in and gave Falco a rude awakening, "We are nearing the vicinity of the planet Zoness. Sensors indicate that many robotic signatures similar to the half-Aparoids are there. We must battle them."

"Huh, what?" Falco was barely awake, but ROB was gone before Falco was able to comprehend what he just heard. He was starting to fall asleep again… 

…"Falco, wake up!"

"What do you want from me!?" Falco yelled.

Fox stood there slightly taken aback. "Uh, I just wanted to ask if you know where Red is. I need to inform him about the upcoming battle."

"What battle?" Falco was still drowsy.

"The battle that ROB just told you about," Fox said slowly.

"Well I didn't hear anything. I think Red is outside training Slippy."

"I just checked. His ship is in the hangar."

"Then check his room. He's always…locked himself…up in…there…" Falco immediately fell asleep again.

A minute later, Fox was walking through the door to Red's room. "Red, are you in here?" He heard no response, so he walked in. Red was nowhere to be found. He noticed how dark the room was; the lights in this room were never on since Red got here. The only light source was the dim starlight coming from the window. Fox walked over to the window. He knew that Red had been staring out of this window for hours. He couldn't imagine how anyone could just stand in one spot for that long. He noticed something in front of the window. It was a piece of paper. Fox picked it up. Written on it were the words "Use your powers wisely: Dad" and a date from 18 years ago. After staring at this sentence, he turned the paper over. He let out a small gasp at what he saw. It was a picture. Fox recognized the building in the background from Corneria City. Standing in front of it were 5 red foxes that all looked similar to Red. The tall one on the left looked somewhat like Red: same fur color, just different facial features. On the right was a red-colored female fox. Her fur was a bit lighter than the others in the picture. In the middle were 3 smaller foxes: 1 female and 2 male. All 3 of them looked like they were in their teen years.

"Do you mind if I have that back now?"

Fox swiftly turned around and saw Red standing in front of him. He looked a bit upset when he snatched the photo out of his hand.

Fox said, "I'm- I'm sorry. I just found that there in front of the window."

Red turned away from him and put the picture in his pocket, "What are you doing in here?"

"ROB announced that we're about to have a battle at Zoness."

Red turned back to him and said with a grin, "Really? I haven't been there in a while." He started to walk out of his room.

Fox was still concerned about the photo he found. "Red, is there something you're not telling me?"

He stopped before walking out and bluntly stated, "Yes, Fox, there is."

Fox was puzzled for a few seconds, then realized that the Great Fox was entering Zoness's atmosphere. The two immediately ran off to the hangar. Red was the first one there and in his fighter. In the time it took for him to check the damage on his ship from the previous battles, everyone else was able to get there; even Falco, who had just woken up for the third time in a row. ROB found the coordinates to the enemy base. The Great Fox 2 made it to the ocean surface and was parked about a mile from the base. Everyone was waiting for the order to depart.

Red had finished the analysis on his ship. There wasn't too much damage, considering that he survived ramming into another ship, but his left wing and his laser cannons needed some minor repairs. It was too late for that. He looked over to his left and saw Slippy. He hoped that the training he gave him would help. "Hey Slippy, are you going to survive this time?"

Slippy looked up in surprise. "Oh, of course I will."

"Are you sure? We'll just have to take your word for it," Falco mocked.

Everyone could see that the Great Fox was no more than 100 feet off the ground. In the distance, they could see a giant base along with several tiny dots flying around which were special half-Aparoid fighters that were now taking notice of them. Fox suspected that the base used to belong to the Cornerian Army.

ROB's mechanical voice came over the communicator, "Clearance for departure." And so the battle began.


	9. Chapter 8: The Zoness Mission

**Chapter 8: The Zoness Mission**

Immediately, Red left first, followed by Fox and Krystal after him and finally Falco and Slippy at the end. Even with the element of surprise, their enemies were ready for them. Swarms of fighters flew out of the base and started shooting at them and Fox immediately had to resort to using a bomb, for 30 of them were already targeting him.

By this time, Falco had already taken out the same number of enemies without a bomb. "Hey, Fox, try saving those for when you really need them. I'm blowing things up left and right over here."

"Speak for yourself. I'm barely killing anything over here." Surprisingly, it was Red who said this.

Slippy was slightly astonished. "You're kidding, right?" he said as he was chasing down a single robot.

"Don't worry; it's just the laser cannons. They're a bit damaged and I can't use lock-on right now…I have a better idea." Red pushed a button on the side of his cockpit and his monitor flashed 'Autopilot Engaged'. As the aircraft slowed down, he bent down and found the two belt straps he was looking for which he secured to his legs to keep himself securely on the floor. After pressing a few more buttons, his seat moved back a bit and the glass windshield on his cockpit slid back, allowing him to stand up.

"What are you doing?" asked Krystal.

"Don't worry about me, Krystal, just keep your mind on the battle." As he said this, he spotted 3 nearby enemies. He concentrated and did a quick slashing move with his hand. From about 40 feet away, all 3 of the enemies exploded as they were hit with a white laser. "Now this is far more productive," he said with a grin. As he continued fighting with this tactic, his ship was still flying around on autopilot shooting enemies by itself with Red still standing inside it.

Everything was going great for a few minutes except for the fact that every time a fighter was destroyed, another one from the base was always there to take its place.

More than 10 minutes had gone by. At this point, Falco was getting annoyed. "How do all these guys fit in that small building?! It's ridiculous!"

Krystal was definitely getting worried. "Fox, we can't keep this up forever."

That was especially true for Red, who was getting more and more tired by the minute because every laser he shot drained his energy. Slippy had some new methods on staying out of trouble, thanks to Red, but he had still taken some damage. Fox had to think of other options.

With difficulty, Red just absorbed a random laser that hit his ship. "Fox, I can't take this! We need to come up with a new plan. What do you remember about the Aparoids that might help us?" He shot the same laser he just absorbed back at another enemy.

"Well, I remember that they can spawn very quickly. That must be it! We have to get inside the base and look for any targets that can spawn enemies."

Red saw multiple rockets heading for him. He quickly sat down to get to his controls just in time to barrel roll out of the way. The rockets missed him and exploded as they hit the ocean. Red looked over to the constant flow of fighters coming out of the base. "Infiltrating that base won't be easy. The only way to do that is if we all keep shooting at the base until we see an entrance. Even then, most of us need to stay out here to keep the swarms from overpowering us."

"Then let's go already!" Falco turned around and started firing at the enemies closer to the base.

Everyone else closed in on the base looking for a way in. They saw that the swarms of robots were coming out of two large openings on one side of the base.

"Shouldn't that be where we enter the base?" Slippy suggested.

"Not exactly a good idea," Falco said, "No point in going through there or you'll get trampled. Try this entrance!" Falco yelled. When he got the chance, Falco shot a few charged lasers at an already burning spot on the base, which created an opening.

Seeing that he would be almost useless in the flight battle, Red decided, "Okay, I'm going in."

After some consideration, Fox said, "I'll join you. The rest of you, try to keep them under control until we can stop them from multiplying."

After he unbuckled his legs from the seat, Red was able to fly by the base and jump inside. He couldn't risk losing his ship right now, so he had already preset the controls to continue the fight on the outer edge of the base where there were less targets to deal with.

Fox, unfortunately, had to park his Arwing on a ledge near the opening, "While I'm inside, try to keep them from damaging my Arwing."

"Will do," said Slippy.

Fox was able to jump through the opening and they were immediately met with about 15 medium-sized robots designed to eliminate intruders. While Fox drew his blaster, he noticed that these particular half-Aparoids looked more like the original Aparoids than any he had seen so far. Red was deciding on how to take them out, and Fox was already blasting at them. Red quickly shot the force of a sniper rifle from each of his hands and destroyed 2 Aparoids. Like the original Aparoids, these on-ground fighters didn't really put up a good fight; their only attacks were charging at targets and shooting slow missiles every 10 seconds, so after a quick sequence of firing they were all easily destroyed.

"Well that was too easy," Fox said with a smile. He then looked over to Red who was staring at the ground and was panting heavily, "Um, you okay there?"

Red looked up at the door in front of them and said, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Because I have a spare blaster if you need it."

Red didn't like using weaponry that much, but he did consider the fact that he was almost worn out and that the next room would be swarming with enemies. "Okay, fine," he said almost angrily.

Fox quickly got the weapon out of his nearby Arwing. Red walked ahead towards the metal door and saw the data screen next to it. He knew the door needed some kind of password, but it didn't matter. He placed his hands on each of the hinges and slowly melted them off the door.

"That was a bit overdone," Fox said as he handed him the blaster, "Where did you get that energy?"

"A mission on Solar," he said darkly, "Let's get this battle over with."

Before Red kicked down the door, Fox talked into his communicator, "Everyone, we're about to enter the main room. Stay focused."

"Okay, Fox," Krystal said back to him. Falco and Slippy were too distracted to reply.

Even without hinges, the door stayed closed. Red used the blaster to shoot a laser at the door and it fell back, allowing them to run into a huge, 2-story high room that was the source of the enemy swarms. Fox and Red were on a ledge on the upper floor. As soon as they broke in, half of the fleet of flying half-Aparoids directed their attention to them. Suddenly, lasers and robot parts started flying and in all directions as they all started shooting. In the violent confusion the 2 foxes immediately had to run to avoid getting hit by enemy lasers. They could see the robot generators in the back of the room. There were 10 generators which all together, spawned several robots every few seconds.

After half a minute went by, the 2 foxes were surviving okay and the oncoming attackers were consistent. Red suddenly put away his blaster and said, "Cover me from behind, Fox."

"Wait, what?"

But Red had already jumped down to the lower floor and was running toward the generators. Some of the flying half-Aparoids were attacking Red on the ground, so he redrew the blaster and only used it when he needed to; his main targets were the generators.

Red could hear Fox yelling, "Finish it quick! Their numbers are increasing!"

Then there was an explosion at the far side of the room when Red destroyed the first generator with several long-distance shots with the blaster.

"Good job!" Fox yelled.

However, Red's energy was slowly diminishing by the minute and it didn't help that he was constantly under attack. More of the fighters were targeting him now that they knew what he was up to. He could see another generator about 10 feet from him until he was suddenly swarmed with enemies. Circling around, they continuously rammed into him and shot him with lasers. He put his arms up in front of his face to shield himself from the bombardment of hits he was taking. He couldn't defend himself from every attack, so he directly took a few hits. Eventually, he threw his arms out and released a massive amount of energy in one explosion. Not only did that take out the swarm around him, but the second generator was destroyed. He was in serous pain now, but now he was no longer taking a severe beating. While avoiding the remaining fighters, he slowly destroyed 3 more of the remaining generators. The robots being spawned no longer attacked Red or Fox knowing that they had already lost the base, so they took to the outside battle. Exhausted, Red sat down against a wall.

Fox was able to jump down from the ledge now that there weren't too many enemies to deal with. Red was now unable to fight, but Fox was able to destroy the remaining 5 generators with ease. The endless swarm was now officially disabled.

"How's the air battle going, Falco?" Fox asked.

"Great!" Falco exclaimed, "I don't know what you did down there, but it sure helped!"

Slippy's cries of joy could be heard in the background while the others were talking.

"What about you Krystal?" Fox asked.

"You guys did a great job!" she happily replied.

"Thanks, Krystal." Fox looked over at Red who had several cuts in his arm and had his back against the wall. "How are you doing?"

"Well, I'm bleeding and I'm about to pass out, but I'm good. Give me a day and I'll be fine."

"I hope so," said Fox.

Red really was in pretty bad shape right now. However, he would have plenty of time to rest up. When he signaled his ship, he saw that it barely survived fighting the battle by itself, but the damage was not beyond repair.

Everyone got back to the Great Fox after destroying the rest of the enemies. Everyone noticed Slippy's improved performance which gave him a reason to be proud of himself and Falco was for the moment cured of his boredom. Red was really beat up, but at least he was still alive and he ignored everyone's congratulatory remarks and made his way to his room. All of the ships survived, but none of them had more than half of their shields left.

The battle was over and everyone was alive but more problems would arrive soon.


	10. Chapter 9: PostBattle

**Chapter 9: Post-Battle**

A couple of hours have passed by since the battle. Slippy, Fox, and Krystal were in the hangar, examining the damage on all of the ships.

"This could take a while," Slippy said solemnly.

"We really took a beating this time," said Fox, "How long do you think the repairs should take?"

Slippy replied, "Um, about a week or two with the supplies we have right now. I could do it faster, but we need better materials than what we have with us."

"That's not good," said Krystal, "Before the end of this week, there's a chance we could be in combat again."

"I know," said Fox, "but we don't have many options."

Red was in his dark room and was sitting on his bed. He was in slight pain, but it wasn't as bad as it was immediately after the battle; it was now more of an annoyance than it was a pain. He examined his arms, which were slightly caked in blood and he remembered in past missions that others sometimes couldn't tell that he was inured or bleeding because of his dark-red fur.

He got up and walked into his bathroom. He spotted a sink and filled it up with water. Staring down at the sink, he slowly dipped his right hand in. He closed his eyes and concentrated; some steam and small bubbles came up out of the sink. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand out of the now warm water. He slowly dunked his right arm in the sink and slightly flinched from the water penetrating the cuts and burns on his arm. After he soaked his arm for a while, he dried it off and repeated the process with his left arm. Then, he gathered some water in his hands and washed his face.

He looked at himself in the mirror and thought to himself, "_I know I've been through worse than this. I've been in worse situations and injuries before. I shouldn't have to be so worried now. But maybe I'm right to be worried. Every day, the enemy seems to grow stronger. Every passing battle gets harder. They could be targeting us right now, and I'm currently in no condition to fight_."

Trying to put these thoughts behind him, he left the bathroom and lied down on his bed. For now, he had to rest.

Red got up several hours later feeling much better and he could easily ignore what was left of the pain in his arm. Outside the window, Zoness was just barely visible as a bright spec in the background. The Great Fox had no set destination, so it was just floating around aimlessly in space. Staring out of the window, he thought of the battle yesterday where he had taken so much damage; and also remembered that Fox saw the picture of his family. Eventually, he would have to tell him the full story, but that was for another day. He walked out of his room into the dining room where Falco was eating breakfast.

Falco looked up from whatever he was eating. "You doing okay there, Red? Fox told me that you took quite a beat down yesterday."

Red sat down across from him and muttered, "Great, is that what he told you?"

Fox and Krystal walked in. "Are you feeling better today?" asked Krystal.

Red replied, "I'm feeling great. Like I told Fox, all I needed was a day."

"But it's only been 10 hours," said Fox.

"Don't worry about me. I've been in worse shape before."

"But I could sense that you were in a lot of pain yesterday," said Krystal.

"Searching my mind again? Well, do what you must. Did I miss anything?"

"Actually, yes," said Fox, "All of the repairs should take quite a while and we may not be ready for the next battle."

"Really? Is Slippy doing the repairs?" Red asked.

"As we speak," Fox replied.

"In that case, I think I'll go talk to him," he said as he got up and walked out of the room.

Falco threw the spoon in his empty bowl. "What do you think that was about?"

"I don't know," Krystal answered, "I know he doesn't want me reading his mind, but from what I'm sensing, he probably has a dark past or a secret he's been trying to keep. I'm worried; he's been acting so mysterious the whole time he was here."

Fox suddenly remembered the photo he saw in Red's room before the battle and asked, "Um, Krystal, can I talk to you in private?"

"Don't mind me," said Falco as he got up to put his bowl away.

Fox and Krystal sat down at the table. "Krystal, um, before the battle on Zoness, I was in Red's room. At first, I didn't see him in there, but then, I noticed a picture in front of his window. I looked at it and…I think it was-"

"-his family." Krystal she finished. She had a shocked expression on her face.

Fox resumed, "Um, yes. Then Red came in and quickly took it back. What do you make of that?"

"Wow, I don't know. He's been very secretive while he was here." After thinking for a second, she let out a gasp, "Fox, do you remember what Peppy said recently about Red's family?"

Fox thought back and remembered, "Do you mean the fact that no one in his family is still alive today?" A few seconds passed by before Fox resumed, "Well, what do you think happened?"

"I don't know," said Krystal, "but it's probably best not to ask him."


	11. Chapter 10: Plan for Reconstruction

**Chapter 10: Plan for Reconstruction**

Red walked into the hangar where Slippy was repairing an Arwing. "Hey, Slippy, are you doing okay there?"

"What? Oh, I'm just making repairs. Hey, I wanted to thank you for that training session. I really did better in that last battle."

"Glad to hear it. Um, how long should these repairs take?" Red asked.

"I don't have a lot of supplies, so it should take quite a while."

"But what if you had all the right supplies?" Red asked.

"Oh, I could get it done in maybe one or two days. Why do you ask?"

"There is a small planet nearby where I had a mission about a year ago. I have a friend there who can probably get you some better supplies, free of charge."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm certain of it. Also, I want to see how the planet itself is doing. I haven't been there in a while and the place could either be prosperous or chaotic."

"Well, let's hope it's prosperous, because these Arwings are really beat up."

"What's the damage on my fighter?" Red asked.

"It's as bad off as any of the Arwings. I was surprised how you programmed it to fight by itself."

"Yeah, I had that feature installed a while ago. It was a hassle to get, but it was worth it. It's very useful, but I learned that it should only be used for emergencies."

"Well, that certainly was an emergency. About that planet you were talking about, how close is it?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but it's close enough. We need to set the Great Fox's path for it now before we drift too far away."

"Sounds like a plan." Slippy stopped working and left the hangar with Red. They headed towards the control room.

On their way, they ran into Fox and Krystal in the hallway.

"Hey Slippy, I thought you were making repairs," said Fox.

"Red told me there's a place where we can get better supplies."

"And where exactly is that?" Fox said looking at Red.

"It's a small planet with an association to Corneria. It's not a very well-known place. In fact, it doesn't even have an official name. Most of those who live there own small businesses, hotels, restaurants, and other things of that nature. A while ago during the Aparoid war, the place was being threatened and I became part of the resistance to help protect it. While I was there, I met a dog named Joe and we became friends. He's a bartender at a small bar, and he has many connections to others on the planet. I could probably convince him to get some supplies for us."

"Well great, then let's go!" Fox said cheerfully.

"Red and I were going to set up the coordinates for the Great Fox," said Slippy.

Krystal spoke for the first time in this conversation, "We'll join you."

Slippy led them down a large section of the hallway and into a room which contained many computers, including ROB who was sitting in a corner.

"Uh, which one of these computers is the ship's navigator?" Red asked.

"Actually, I think ROB is," said Fox.

Slippy walked over to one of the many computers. "But we need to find the coordinates of the planet." The computer monitor that Slippy was looking at was showing a map of the space surrounding the Great Fox. Slippy pressed one button and the screen showed 4 different nearby planets. Slippy asked, "Red, which one of these is it?"

Red walked over and looked at the monitor. He recognized it almost immediately and pointed at it, "It's that one. I'd recognize it anywhere"

Slippy pressed two more buttons and the computer zoomed in on that planet. They could all see that the planet was about half covered in water, it was about the same size as an average moon or an asteroid, and its landscape similar to Corneria's. The land was dotted with several large cities.

Red pointed out a specific city located on the equator and said, "That's where we need to go."

Slippy zoomed in on the city, "ROB, set the Great Fox's coordinates for that city."

ROB replied, "Affirmative, setting coordinates. Arrival time is in approximately 2 hours."

"Perfect!" said Red, "I'll set it up so that we have clearance to land there."

Everyone left the room and Slippy went back to the hangar so that he could document exactly what he needed for the repairs.

Red stopped in the middle of the hallway, pressed a button on his watch, and spoke into it, "This is Red, calling for the Commander."

A robotic voice answered back, "Red: authorization confirmed. I'm transferring your call to the Commander."

A few seconds passed and the Commander's voice came in, "Hello, Red. Are you having any problems?"

"No, sir, I just need someone to give the Great Fox clearance to land on that planet I visited last year."

"Well which one was that?"

"The BDC, sir."

"Oh, that place? Why do you want to go there again?"

"If it helps get the mission done, and if it's within your power, you're supposed to assist me."

"All, right. All, right. I was just asking, no need to be rude."

"Uh, sorry, I went through a lot yesterday."

"Okay, I'll transfer your request over to someone who can help you."

"I'm glad you could help," said Red.

The commander grumbled as he the gathered some data, which included the Great Fox II's specs and some legal info and transferred it over to the corresponding personnel. "Okay, that's all set. In a few minutes, you should get a call confirming your authorization to land."

"That's what I need to hear. Thanks, Commander." Red hung up the call.

His plan was in motion. The next step for him was to find his friend once they reached the planet. It wouldn't be too hard of a job; it's just another task that will benefit his team, he would think. Some might think that he's overworking himself right after recovering from the battle, but he rarely felt the need to settle down for too long during a mission.

It's just another task, he would think.


	12. Chapter 11: Business District

**Chapter 11: Business District **

Fox and Krystal were walking together in a hallway. For some reason, Fox was still concerned about Red ever since he found that picture. "Krystal, once we get to that planet, do you think we should go with him?"

"What? You mean Red? I don't see why not, but what reason do you have?"

"I'm not so sure myself. It's just that he usually keeps to himself all the time and now that we know he has no family…I mean, he has that photo with him all the time. Don't you see? He misses them and we are the only other ones who can sympathize with him."

She had no idea that his reasons were so deep. "Well, I can see what you mean, but what are you trying to accomplish by going on this errand with him?"

"I just want him to feel more welcome here. He's always locked up in that room by himself. He's very secretive and I don't want that to affect our battle performance in any way."

"Well, we know that he has always lived that way throughout his life."

"But for what reason?" asked Fox, "I want to know why he's so withdrawn all the time."

Krystal finally gave up on the subject. "Okay, I guess we can go with him, but only if he allows it."

"Thanks, Krystal."

Red had gotten his conformation call quite a while ago; the Great Fox 2 was now allowed to travel to the 'BDC', as Red calls it. He gazed out his window as the Great Fox neared their destination. Close up, it looked somewhat different than he remembered it. When he left the planet after his mission last year, the cities were all a mess, many of the buildings were a wreck, and there was debris everywhere. But now, the planet's recovery seemed to be going well and the land was a bit greener than he recalled. The small grey dots that were cities were spread throughout the planet and Red could tell which city was their destination. It was currently dusk in that city, but that's as dark as it ever gets on the BDC.

"This should be an interesting trip," he said to himself, "I wonder how Joe is doing." He walked out of his room and made his way to the control room.

As they entered the planet's atmosphere minutes later, Red activated the communicator on his watch and he contacted the flight personnel in charge of incoming aircrafts. "This is Red, authority #2317, with permission to land the Great Fox 2. Do you read me?"

A gruff voice answered, "Yes, I read you. The Great Fox 2 is detected. You have clearance to land."

Red turned off the communicator. He and the Star Fox members were all in the control room where they could only see clouds, but once they cleared up, a large city could be seen. It looked very much like a fully built Corneria City, but not as glamorous. Still, as they were approaching, Red was very surprised by what he saw. "Wow, this place really has changed in a year!"

Falco asked, "What, did this city used to be like a village or something like that?"

"Not exactly," he said with a laugh, "but it was really beat up after the battle here. ROB, do you see those ships parked in the grassy area outside the city? That's where we should park. Try to get a spot close to Joe's bar, okay? It's on the south side of the city."

"I will see what I can do," said the robot.

As they neared, everyone could see the many skyscrapers throughout the city and all of the ships of all sizes in the parking lot. Most of the ships were Arwing sized, but mainly used for travel, not fighting. ROB fortunately found a place to land that was about a half-minute walking distance from the city. As the ship slowed down, everyone gazed at the city, which mainly consisted of skyscrapers, most of them made of concrete or metal, and busy roads, some of which were hovering several inches in the air.

When the Great Fox made a successful landing, Red said, "Well, I'm off. I shouldn't take that long."

Before he left the room, Fox stopped him. "Wait, Red, if it's okay with you, Krystal and I would like to tag along."

He turned around and looked at them. "Really?"

"Really," Krystal confirmed.

After a pause he decided, "Yeah, I guess there's no harm in that. Does anyone else want to come?"

"Nah, I still need to finish tallying up the supplies we need," said Slippy.

"Okay then. Falco, what about…" Red could see Falco already dozing off in his chair. "I guess not. Okay, let's go then."

The three of them left the ship and started the short walk to the city. Once they were outside, they could see and appreciate the scenery around them, which consisted of green, rolling hills as far as the eye can see. But their path was towards the city and their objective wasn't to go sightseeing. Although, that doesn't mean that a little fun can't be had; it's just as long as they get their job done…


	13. Chapter 12: Red's Contact

**Chapter 12: Red's Contact**

The 3 foxes arrived at the city and only one of them knew exactly where they were going. They took a short walk up the grassy parking lot to the city which was an amazing sight: The streets were filled fast-moving vehicles, some were air-based and others were ground-based; there were many tall buildings, some metal, but most were concrete; and like Red said before, the establishments down the streets were mainly restaurants and businesses small and large. It really reminded Fox of Corneria. However, the city was significantly different than Red remembered. Things have really changed in the year of his absence. "This place didn't used to be this well off," he noted.

Krystal was taking in the sights. "This place is amazing. So all of this was built in a year?"

Red replied, "Yes, mostly everything that was destroyed here during the war was rebuilt. A lot of these streets are new, I think."

This statement made Fox wonder, "If that's the case, then how do you even know where we're going?"

"Joe's place was still standing after the war. It shouldn't be more than 1 or 2 blocks from here."

They were the only ones walking on the sidewalk. On their way to Joe's, several drivers on the streets were looking at them out of their vehicle windows as they were speeding by. Red was starting to get annoyed. If there was one thing that irritated him, it was not being able to maintain a low profile.

"Uh, Red?" said Fox, "Do they know you here?"

"Ah, probably not. They're probably looking at us the fact that we are the only ones in the city who use the sidewalks. As you can see, no one else here does."

They walked on for another minute while Red was looking around in all directions. All of a sudden, he stopped and looked at one tall building across the street. "No…way. This can't be," he said this almost happily. Pointing to the building in front of them, "I think that's it."

Fox and Krystal looked at the building. It was a metallic, 10 story high building with many windows on every floor and above the large, glass doorway written in huge cursive letters were the words "Joe's Nightclub and Hotel".

Needless to say, Red was shocked. "Wow, a hotel? I didn't realize that he became such a success. This should be interesting."

Once the street traffic slowed down, they walked across the street and through the double doors into a huge, dazzling room that was apparently the reception area. It was the kind of room you'd expect from a fancy, 5-star place with a modern, high-class style and a fountain in the middle. Red walked over to the check-in counter where a female orange cat was sitting. "Hello," the cat said, "Are you checking in for the night?"

"No, actually I wanted to know where Joe is. I'm an old friend of his."

"He's in the bar area over there," she pointed to a hallway on the other side of the room, "Just go through there."

"Thanks."

So the three foxes walked around the fountain and through the hallway and on the other side of the passage was a peaceful scene. The lights were dimmed, except on the stage where a slow-jazz band was playing. There were about 30 circular wooden tables in this large room and about a third of them were filled. Some were in the front watching the band play, some were in the back drinking and talking merrily, and the rest of them were in couples on the dance floor right in front of the stage. It was so calm here; the 3 foxes stopped to watch the band for a minute until Red remembered why they were there. He looked around and saw who he was looking for. At the far side of the room, a brown-furred dog was selling drinks over the bar counter. He looked somewhat different than Red remembered: far more professional and cleaner. Red motioned for Fox and Krystal to follow him. When they got to the counter, the dog looked right at Red and asked, "What would you like to order?" He didn't even recognize him.

With a laugh, Red said, "Joe, is your mind going or something?"

With an aggravated look, he said, "Listen, sir, I won't tolerate any…" He blinked. "Red? Is that you?"

"Took you long enough," Red said with a smile.

"Well, how have you been, buddy?"

"You know, killing and cheating death; that sort of thing."

"It's good to see you haven't been killed off yet. And who do you have with you?"

"You don't recognize them, either? I was assigned to work with Star Fox."

"Star Fox? Oh, yeah, I saw you 2 on the news before. Saved us all from those Aparoids, didn't you? Well, why don't you just sit down here and enjoy the entertainment?"

"Um, okay," said Fox as he sat down.

"Thank you, Joe," said Krystal.

"Just let me tell you two something thing about this guy," said Joe, "He will try to kill himself the first chance he gets."

"Yeah, we kind of figured that out already," said Fox.

Ignoring the comment, Red asked, "So how long has it been Joe? I haven't been to this planet since the-"

"-Aparoid invasion?" Joe interrupted.

"Wait, so the Aparoids really did come here?" Fox asked.

"Yeah, they did," Red said glumly, "but let's not talk about that. I want to talk more about this place. You really jumpstarted your career here."

"I certainly did. I managed to turn the low-rate pub you once knew into a high-class 5-star hotel and things have been going well ever since."

"Do you always have a band here?"

"Just about every night; although, it's not always this casual here. There have been quite a few parties here too, just like in the old days."

Fox taped Red on the shoulder and whispered, "Remember what we're here for."

"Oh, yeah. Joe, I hate to ask this from you, but the reason we're here is that we were recently in an intense battle and we don't have enough supplies to make the repairs on our ships. Do you think you could-"

"Oh sure." Joe interrupted again, "Just make a list and I'll get whatever you need."

"That's great!" Fox exclaimed, "I guess you were right about him, Red."

Red said, "Fox, Slippy was making a list. Does he have it ready yet?"

"I think so. We can get it from him later."

"Oh, sure, Fox. You can bring that list to me and I'll pull some strings."

"Thanks, Joe," Fox and Krystal said simultaneously.

They all stopped talking to listen to the band play. Red saw those on the dance floor dancing to the soft, jazzy tune. Eventually, an idea came into his head. He wasn't too fond of it, but he thought it would be funny. "So do you think that you two would dance?"

"What was that?!" obviously was Fox's reaction.

"Well why not?" Red asked.

"Yeah Fox, why not?" Krystal asked Fox with a smile.

Fox was both shocked and slightly embarrassed. "Um, I don't know how to dance?"

"Well maybe I can teach you," said Krystal

For Fox, it was that embarrassing evening on Sauria all over again…only worse, "Um, well, um, uh…"

Red and Joe had to restrain themselves from laughing hysterically.

"Oh, come on, Fox, why not?"

Fox saw no way out of it, so eventually the 2 of them walked down to the dance floor. Red and Joe couldn't take it anymore and started laughing, but quietly enough so that no one else heard them.

At least one thing can be said: Fox's plan backfired a little.


	14. Chapter 13: Discussion

**Chapter 13: Discussion**

Joe was still laughing when he said, "Red, was that exactly necessary?"

"Not really, but it worked, didn't it?"

"How did you think that it would work?"

"Eh, there has always been something between them. I've noticed it every day. They're just too embarrassed to admit it; or at least Fox is."

"Well, on a different subject, what have you been doing in the past year?" asked Joe.

Red looked like he was in deep thought, "Okay, uh, 9 months ago, uh, 6 months, that happened, uh, 3 months, 5 weeks. Well, everything that happened up till last week: not much, really."

"That certainly sounds like you. As for me, I've been remodeling and fixing up here. That's what just about everyone on this planet did after the war. Either that, or they just left"

"Yeah, I noticed that. It looks like everything on this planet is going well. You have any complaints?"

"None that I can think of," Joe said happily.

They both looked over at Fox and Krystal. Fox was having a hard time dancing. It looked too comical.

Red looked away from them, "I should probably tell you what we've been fighting against."

"What is it this time, giant monkeys?"

"I wish. It seems that there are swarms of robots flying around that are apparently half-Aparoid."

"Half-Aparoid? That can't be good. What exactly are they?"

"I don't know. I was hoping that you could tell me. After all, you know someone from almost every research team on this planet."

"Well, I wish I could tell you something. Researchers here don't research dangerous stuff. It's just science and physics and things like that. Anything more extreme than that and we'd have trouble pretty quick; it's kind of boring actually."

"I see," said Red, "I guess it doesn't matter that we don't know much about them. What does matter is that we've beaten them in every battle so far."

"Didn't expect any less from you. Hey, have you told them yet?"

"Told them about what?"

"Well, you know: your childhood. Um, the Aparoid incident?"

Red stared down at the table, "No, I haven't yet, although, I was planning on it. Fox saw my family picture and he told Krystal about it, so I know they suspect something bad happened before."

Red thought back to that day again. He saw explosions in his mind, each one more painful as the last. As his mind started to darken, he heard the jazz music and his mind quickly came back to the present.

"I feel so bad that you had to go through something like that," said Joe.

"Eh, don't worry about it. I've gotten over it as much as I can."

So for the next 10 minutes or so, no one said another word. Red was in deep thought while he listened to the music in the background; Joe watched the band when he wasn't selling drinks; and Fox was clumsily dancing with Krystal. It was really a nice change for someone who spent the last few days inside metal walls. Eventually, Fox gave up trying to dance, so the two of them came back to where Red and Joe were.

Red was broken from his train of thought and said, "Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah, I think so, after that embarrassing display," said Fox.

"That wasn't too embarrassing now, was it?" asked Krystal.

"Um, well-"

"Joe, we're about to leave," said Red, "I'll come by tomorrow with the list of supplies."

"I can probably get the stuff to your ship later the same day depending on the items on the list. Stuff for repairing and things like that, I can get; but as you know, all of my associates stay too far on the safe side, so don't go asking for any super-weapons, all right?"

Red said, "I think we'll stick to repair kits. Thanks, Joe."

After all of the good-byes were said, the 3 foxes left the site and made their way back to the Great Fox. On the way back, Fox walked over to Red and said in a low voice, "Why did you do that before?"

Red started laughing quietly, "What, the dance setup? Well the main reason was that it was hilarious. Anyway, a piece of advice: in the future, quit stammering and quit acting so nervous."

"I just don't see what the point of all that was," Fox stated.

"You don't?" Red asked. "_He's in denial_," he thought to himself.

Nothing else was said until they made it back to the Great Fox. It was getting late and Slippy was already asleep, so Red couldn't do anything else except turn in for the night. "Okay, I guess I'll see you two in the morning."

After they all said good-night, Red made it too his room. The first thing he noticed was the view from his window. Looking outside, he took at this alternate sight: on the right side of the window was the beautifully built city that he helped saving, and on the left side were endless, rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. The dusk light illuminated the scenery, even though it was now in the middle of the night. It was a while since he had something other than the stars to stare at. Again, he pulled out the picture of his family from his pocket and set it in front of the window. He crawled into his bed and he didn't fall asleep for almost an hour, for he was in deep thought. But eventually, he managed to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Fox was wandering the hallway, thinking about what just happened before. He stopped at a room where the television monitor was on and all the lights were off. Before he walked in, Fox had already guessed that Falco was asleep on the couch and he was right. Falco was sitting up with his eyes closed and his mouth open and he was snoring…loudly. Fox turned off the cheesy sitcom that was showing on the monitor. There was still some light coming in from the hallway, so he could easily navigate his way around the room. As if turning of the television was some kind of alarm clock, Falco woke up in the dark and shouted, "Uh, who are you?!"

Fox stood there with his eyes wide open, "Falco, are you okay?"

"Oh, it's you Fox. Man, you missed it. I was fighting this guy, I had no idea who he was, he almost beat me, but I broke his leg and…oh, dang it, it was a dream, wasn't it."

"Don't be so sure," Fox said jokingly.

"Aw, man, and I was winning too." He suddenly remembered why Fox was gone before, "Hey, how'd the trip go?"

"It went okay, I…guess…Um, we found Red's friend and he should have those supplies for us tomorrow."

"Well that's good news. Anything else happen?"

"Um, no, not really," Fox said hurriedly, "Uh, do you want me to put the show back on?"

"No, thanks. I think I'll try for a…rematch…against…," He was already snoring away.

Fox used the little light he had to make his way out into the hallway. Little did he know, Krystal was just outside. "Oh, hey Fox."

"Uh, hey Krystal." This was quickly becoming embarrassing, "Um, that didn't go exactly as I planned before. I guess we left looking for more information on Red, but instead, we found out that I suck at dancing."

"You weren't that bad, but don't worry about it, you'll get better at it."

This was becoming too much for him. Fox searched his mind for any way to end this conversation and he could only come up with one way. "Uh, good night."

"Good night, Fox."

That was a bit easier than he expected. So he went to his room that, unlike Red, he usually kept well-lit. He sat down on his bed and buried his hands in his face in embarrassment.


	15. Chapter 14: Reconstruction

**Chapter 14: Reconstruction**

The next morning, Red got the information from Slippy that he needed and he went back into the city, by himself this time, to send that information to Joe. He found the Joe at the bar but since the dog wasn't working at the time, they had a better chance to catch up on what has happened since the Aparoid war.

"So, Red, absolutely nothing has happened since last year?"

"Not exactly. I haven't had any serious missions or anything like that. Mostly, I've been traveling around the Lylat System, revisiting some places, learning new cultures, relearning old cultures, and other unimportant odds and ends. I was considering going to the asteroid belt for target practice when I got the call to fight with Star Fox."

"That sounds…boring; very boring. But, whatever, you could probably experience all the boredom in the universe and not care one bit."

"Yeah, probably," Red replied glumly, "By the way, how did you get to be this successful in just one year? Last time I was here, you were almost broke living in the back room of your bar."

"Well, the success of this hotel was the result of a combination of things: 1. mainly luck, 2. I finally stopped being lazy and finished business school (with luck), 3. I got a business loan that I qualified for (with luck), and 4. I hired the right guys to fix up this place (luckily, I had a friend who was a building contractor)."

"Well, I'm happy for you. You certainly are having a more eventful time than I am."

"Not anymore. Now, you have a new enemy on your hands that apparently almost killed you. That's certainly more eventful than what's happening here."

"I guess you could say that."

"So how'd you almost get killed?"

"I'm getting careless, that's why!" Red was feeling around for a spot on his head, "I think I might've gotten brain damage from that head injury last year, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I remember. That was sure a nasty hit you took, but I thought you fully recovered."

"I did recover, but all the injuries I have received over the years are starting to slow me down in the long run."

"Well with a job like yours, I'm surprised that you've even survived this long."

"Yeah, it has almost been 20 years since I joined," he stated as more memories started entering his head, "and almost 20 years since…well, let's not talk about it."

"Oh, that. Well, just be glad you were able to survive that incident."

"I said let's not talk about it," Red said calmly.

"Sorry. Well, why didn't you stop by more often?"

"I guess it never crossed my mind. Yeah, I probably should've. Maybe in the future, I will."

"Okay, but before you go, where can I drop off the supplies at?"

"The Great Fox 2. I can show you where it's at." He held out his left arm and pressed a button on his watch. On the small screen, it showed a map of the city with a dot on the outer edge indicating where the ship was.

Joe noted, "Okay, so it's just outside the city. In fact, that's just a couple streets down into the parking lot."

Red pressed another button and it showed an image. "And this is what the Great Fox 2 looks like."

"Hmm, it looks more like an aircraft carrier to me."

"It does, doesn't it?" He pulled back his arm and set his watch back to normal. "Anyway, I should get going now."

"Okay, then. Make sure you don't die on the way back," he joked. As soon as Red left, Joe got started making calls to get the supplies.

Red got back to the Great Fox. Nothing has changed during his short absence. He was walking the halls back to his room when he passed by the living room and saw that Falco was still sitting in front of the television monitor. "Hey, Falco, how are you doing today?" he asked cheerfully.

"I'm bored and tired!" he groaned

"Yeah, good luck with that." So leaving Falco to watch nothing but bad soap operas, he headed towards Slippy's room. Slippy was inside, typing away on his computer and he seemed to be concentrating hard. In fact, he didn't notice that Red had entered until he asked loudly, "Are you having any trouble there?"

"Whoa, I didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, listen, I talked to Joe and he'll bring over the supplies you need later today."

"Really? That's great!"

"Also, I want to talk about that computer virus I created. The other day, you said you would help me." Red pulled a small cartridge out of his pocket; the same one he used on the mother ship during that first battle.

"Okay, what about it?"

"I'm not perfect at programming, but I got some help a while ago and managed to create this thing. If you plug this into a computer and access the document on it, then you press this button," indicating a button on the cartridge, "and if the system's security is weak enough, it crashes. The problem is, the virus is unreliable and there might be more advanced computers for me to crash in the future."

"So you want me to see how we can improve it?"

"That's the idea."

"Then I should look at it later once the repairs on the ships are complete."

"Thanks, Slippy." Red left the program on a table.

A few hours later, a grayish-white hover-vehicle was headed straight for the Great Fox 2. Red was staring out the window at the time, so already saw the car coming and was outside in a flash. Once it slowed down to a stop and fell a couple inches to the ground, the brown dog stepped out of the vehicle with 3 large boxes in the trunk.

"Hey, Joe, I assume you brought the supplies."

"Sure did, Red. I'll just put it on your tab and you can pay for it whenever."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

The dog laughed heartily and replied, "Nah, I was just kidding."

"Oh, right…I'll just get Slippy out here to make sure you didn't screw up," Red joked back. "Do you want to come in?"

"Eh, I don't see why not."

Red and Joe went inside the Great Fox 2 and towards Slippy's room. On the way, Falco managed to see them in the hallway, "Hey, Red, who's this joker with you?"

"He's a friend of mine who's potentially saving our lives just by bringing his car here."

"What, are we using the parts from his car to fix my engine? I'd better go outside and take it apart right now."

Joe was a bit annoyed. "For your information, sir, I'm donating supplies to your team."

"Did you bring something to fix my engine? If not…you'll pay!"

"I'm glad you two are hitting it off well," Red interrupted. "It's probably best if you ignore him, Joe."

Joe said, "Well in that case…" He walked past Falco without looking at him.

Red was still standing in front of Falco. "Yeah, thanks for being polite."

"He shouldn't even be in here and you want me to be polite?"

"Relax, Falco, he'll be gone in less than 15 minutes."

"I hope so, or things will start to get ugly."

Red walked past Falco and found Joe. Red shouted back at Falco, "Once he's gone, you can get back to watching your little soap opera!"

"There's seriously nothing else to watch!" Falco shouted.

"Sure," Red said to himself.

The two were at an intersection in the hallway.

Joe was looking around in all directions. "I'm already lost," he said, "Slippy's room could be anywhere. You know where we're going?"

"Yep." Red turned and opened the door to Slippy's room. "We're here."

"…Oh."

Red walked in and saw Slippy asleep in his chair. "Hey, Slippy, are you awake in there!?"

Slippy woke up and started mumbling, "Huh, who, what?"

Red gave him time to wake up before speaking. "This is Joe. He brought all the things you need."

"Oh, well thank you, Joe."

Examining the gears and computer chips on the floor, Joe said, "You sure keep this room clean, don't you?"

"What? Oh, right. Sorry about the mess."

"So do you want to go outside to help bring the stuff in?" Red asked.

"Sure, okay. Just give me a second to get up."

"We'll just meet you outside," said Joe as they started walking.

"Wait!" In a matter of seconds, Slippy was out of his room and running down the hall to catch up with them.

After a short time, they were all outside and Joe opened the trunk on his car to reveal 3 large boxes filled with everything they needed. They each carried one box from the car to the hangar. Slippy struggled to carry his there. Once they were in the hangar, Slippy checked to make sure he had everything that he needed. "I think that's everything. Thanks guys."

"Oh, by the way, Slippy," said Red, "Joe wants the money for this paid right now."

"What!? You must be joking!"

Joe thought about it for a second. "Well the more I think about it, the more I wish he really wasn't joking. I got to leave now anyway before I get any smart ideas and demand a check."

"Really? You have to go now?" Red asked. "Well, it's been good seeing you, anyway."

"Just promise you'll visit again."

"If I live to see next year, I promise I will."

So as Red said to Falco, he was gone. Just then, Red thought of something. "Hey, Slippy, do you know where Fox and Krystal are? I haven't seen them all day."

"I think Krystal is still in her room; I think she's still asleep. Maybe she didn't sleep well last night. I checked on Fox earlier; he's awake, but for some reason, he doesn't want to come out of his room. He seems to be hiding in there."

"For some reason, I think that's my fault. I should give him a few more hours before talking to him." He left Slippy to work and he went to his room.

Red got back to his room and looked outside. "This is turning out to be quite a mission. I wonder what will come next. Whatever it is, at least we'll be ready for it."


	16. Chapter 15: A New Base

**Chapter 15: A New Base**

The Great Fox 2 has already departed from the business planet later the same day of Joe's visit and by this time Slippy was far in the process of repairing the ships.

The next couple days were uneventful, but necessary for resting up.

Slippy has long since finished any necessary repairs on all of the ships and he managed to start working on Red's virus program. Slippy eventually reprogrammed it to work better against the kind of programming he had seen from the half-Aparoid they have been fighting against and he enhanced it to be more effective against stronger security systems.

Eventually, Fox left his bedroom, but avoided talking to Krystal or even coming near her because he was too embarrassed. Red felt partially responsible for that.

The only eventful thing that happened was that Falco was caught crying, a little, because some character died in the soap opera he was watching. Everyone got over it eventually, except Falco, of course. For him, the only consolation from embarrassment was that his Arwing engine was fixed.

But this uneventful episode was about to be interrupted. While Star Fox was resting up from the battle, a large group of half-Aparoids was perfecting a base that they built and got it up and running. Cornerian researchers eventually discovered the base and quickly found out its function and the leaders of the Cornerian army hired Star Fox to go after it. Government scientists and strategists knew that this would probably be one of the more important battles in this fighting war.

After 4 days in space, everyone was called to the conference room where a meeting was about to start. Everyone was refreshed and they knew they ready for a new battle as Peppy was on hologram transmission. "My friends, I hope you're ready, for we have another target on our hands. An enemy base was recently established on Fichina whose sole purpose seems to be to manufacture as many enemy fighters as possible."

"They didn't disable the Climate Control Center again, did they?" asked Fox. That would seem to be the perfect strategy. After all, that's what their predecessors did.

"Surprisingly, Fox, they didn't even come near the Control Center. It seems that the fighters that the base is spawning wouldn't be able to withstand the rough weather. In that case, some Cornerian pilots were able to get close enough to the base to obtain some footage of it which you're about to see here." He transferred the data over and Peppy's image was replaced by a video of a base consisted of a very large metal dome in the center and 2 long buildings extending on either side. The dome itself had a small hole in the top that acted as an escape route for the newly made fighters.

"But where are all of those fighters going?" asked Krystal.

Peppy replied, "It seems that they just fly into space and go wherever they need to go that is necessary. This base is very productive in creating fighters, so it must be shut down or else they'll just keep coming. A plan was created for you to infiltrate it. All of you will fly near and you'll start taking out as many fighters possible. Eventually, Falco will stay in the sky while the rest of you will land near the far ends of the base to try to break in."

"So I'll just keep flying and blowing stuff up?" asked Falco.

"Um, that's the idea. The rest of you will split up into 2 groups: Red and Slippy in one group, Fox and Krystal in other group."

Krystal looked up at Fox and saw the startled look on his face from them being grouped together. Fox noticed Krystal was looking at him and he looked back at her. She was smiling. Fox smiled weakly back.

Peppy continued, "We've taken a scan of what is inside the base. Fox and Krystal will enter on the west side of the base where there is a large room containing an entire fleet of ground-based fighters and robots for you two to destroy. On the east side, there are fewer fighters, but several more security and computer related problems for Red and Slippy to overcome."

"That's perfect!" said Slippy, "We were just working on a solution for that kind of situation."

"Most importantly, that side of the base leads to that large dome in the center. We discovered what is creating the fighters, and we need you to take it out."

He transmitted another video that showed a scan of inside the dome. There was a monstrous robot inside which reminded Fox of the giant Aparoid on Katina that he fought in his Landmaster. The machine appeared to be spawning fighters out of the top of its head at a very rapid rate.

Peppy resumed, "The idea is that Red will fight it while Slippy stays behind to try to break into their computer system."

There was a short pause before Red shouted, "You can't be serious! I have to destroy that thing on-foot?"

"You'll have a rocket launcher with you," said Peppy, "You should do okay."

"Wait, I have to use a rocket launcher?" Then Red thought about this for a second and realized that this was one of those special situations where his kind of firepower wouldn't be enough. "Okay, fine. I guess I have to use weaponry if I want to beat that thing."

"What do you got against weapons?" asked Falco, "I love weapons."

"It's just that I usually never fight that way. It's not fun carrying a weight around." Red explained. "Is there anything else in the mission that we need to know?"

"I believe not." said Peppy, "Once that giant machine is gone, the base is useless."

Fox stood up. "Then let's go. Set the course for Fichina!"


	17. Chapter 16: Arrival at Fichina

**Chapter 16: Arrival at Fichina**

Everyone was pumped up about the mission, except Red, who had to resort to hiding in his room again, but not for the usual reasons. Instead of being reclusive, he was actually worried; worried about what he was facing this time. He knew that the purpose of the giant robot was to produce half-Aparoids, but how well does it fight? Does it have any good defenses? Could he beat it with just his hands and a rocket launcher? Has he even rested enough from the last battle? Examining his right arm, he could still see a few scars from the battle on Zoness. There was nothing that he could do about that now. After examining his arm, he extended it in front of him, and his hand was face-up. He stared at his hand and a small flame ignited just above his palm. He stared at this flame for a few seconds. Then, he looked over at his window, where he saw his family picture which always gave him hope. He looked back at the flame in his palm and decided, "I'm ready."

Hearing footsteps, he closed his hand and put the flame out. His door opened and Fox walked in. "We're almost at Fichina. We should go ahead and board our ships."

Red said back to him, "That sounds like a good idea."

Once Red left his room, they walked to the hangar where 4 repaired Arwings and a fixed-up Cornerian fighter was waiting. Past the force field that led outside, an icy-blue Fichina could be seen in the distance.

Falco was already there waiting in his Arwing.

"Hey, Falco," Red called, "You're here before I am. That's different."

"I couldn't wait to get back into my Arwing," Falco stated, "I've been waiting absolutely forever for this battle."

Red smiled. "It's only been a few days."

"Whatever, wise guy."

Slippy then entered. "Oh, you're already here. I thought I was here early."

Fox said, "We're all here early. We just need to evaluate your repairs to make sure you did everything right."

"What for? The repairs are perfect. Besides, if you wanted to check the repairs, you should've done that days ago."

Red stepped in and said, "Actually I did. You did quite a good job on the repairs. This team would probably be lost without you."

Falco shouted from his Arwing, "That's the only reason we bother to rescue him at least 3 times per battle."

"I fought okay last time, didn't I?" Slippy shouted back.

"Only because Red helped train you," yelled Falco.

"That's true enough," Red said quietly so that only Fox could hear him.

Slippy was still mad, but Fichina was very close now and there was no time to argue. "Whatever, Falco, let's just get ready."

Red and Slippy headed towards their ships. Fox also started towards his Arwing until he noticed something. "Hey, guys, have any of you seen-"

"-I'm right behind you, Fox," said Krystal.

"Oh, there you are. I was wondering where you were."

Krystal walked past him then turned around. "You ready?"

"Uh, sure, Krystal." They both ran to their Arwings and everyone prepared while the Great Fox 2 entered Fichina's atmosphere.

Fox turned on the communicator and said, "ROB, land a good distance from the base. We should try to be subtle."

"I'm not so sure that subtlety matters," said Slippy, "It's possible they don't have a radar system."

"Better safe than sorry," Falco pointed out, "Besides, I want to see what happens when we catch them by surprise."

Outside, a light snow was falling on the flat ground. It wasn't really windy and visibility was only slightly limited because of the snow. In other words: pretty good flying conditions. The Great Fox 2's decent rate decreased as it neared the ground.

Krystal could sense the enemies in the base. "We're getting close."

"Good," said Red, "because I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"What, are you scared of that walking bucket of bolts?" Falco mocked.

"Well, maybe I should be, considering that it's over a hundred times bigger than me, it may be armed, and it could send fighters out to attack me. Have you considered the possible mortality; as in my mortality?"

Fox tried to reassure him. "If any of us can destroy that thing single-handedly, it's you."

"Try double-handedly with a huge gun over my shoulder." Red corrected, "Even then-"

"-The enemy base is in sight," ROB interrupted.

On everyone's cockpit screen was a live recording of a zoom-in on the base. The view was somewhat disrupted by the light snowfall, but they could clearly see the half-Aparoids hanging around the base and more exiting the top of the dome, about 5-10 per second. After a few seconds, The Great Fox 2 successfully landed on the icy ground.

"Here we are," said Fox and after a long pause he continued, "Let's win this battle." Fox suddenly sped out of the hangar, followed by Krystal, then Red, Slippy, and finally Falco. Fox immediately saw the targets ahead of them, "You all remember the mission, right? Let's take out most of these guys before we land."

And so the battle commenced. With the element of surprise, they were able to take out several enemies before the rest of them all spread out and began fighting back. All of the fighters were very diverse, as usual. Fox and Krystal were fighting a group of 30, all of them snakelike. Red was dealing with a few large ones that had quite some armor. Slippy and Falco were flying in random directions, shooting anything in their path.

The first 5 minutes of the battle just flew by because they were all having too much fun dominating the battle. Many of the enemies have already been defeated and have fallen to the ground. The resulting metal debris contrasted the white snow. Still, more enemies were exiting the dome and joining the fight, but the five attackers were easily overtaking them.

Eventually, Falco said, "Hey, guys, I think I can take it from here. You all go ahead and get inside that base."

"Will do," said Fox, "Come on, guys."

The rest of them split up into their groups. They all landed their ships at their corresponding entrances. Once they all exited their ships, they saw that the entrances were both closed and locked.

Fox walked up to the door on his side and saw that he couldn't get in. "What now?" he asked.

Slippy was typing on the electronic keypad next to his door. He said into his communicator, "I think I can get both of the doors open. Just wait a few seconds."

Red said to Fox and Krystal, "Your side is just one big room full of things to shoot at. There should be a lot of them, so be careful."

"Just worry about what you have to be careful for," said Fox.

"Don't worry; I'll take care of it. Otherwise, Falco, prepare for the longest battle of your life."

"Fine by me," he said, "I could fight up here for hours!" He was doing really well fighting by himself, so what he said was probably true.

"Got it!" Slippy somehow managed to break into the security and found a way to unlock the doors. "Are you all ready?"

"We're ready, Slippy," said Fox.

Slippy pressed 6 more digits on the keypad and both of the doors unlocked.


	18. Chapter 17: Ground Battles

**Chapter 17: Ground Battles**

Fox and Krystal got out their blasters and machine guns. Red put the rocket launcher's strap around his shoulder and let it lie at his side; he wouldn't need it yet. Slippy pressed one button on the keypad and the small screen above it turned red. Simultaneously, the metal doors on each end of the base slowly dropped.

Gunfire immediately started as the two foxes jumped inside a long room packed with half-Aparoids. There were some the airborne enemies that started flying towards the foxes and other robotic creatures on the ground started charging at them. There were so many enemies that Fox and Krystal had to use their machine guns and their blasters to avoid being attacked. It soon became apparent that they were outnumbered at least 200:1.

"We can't stay here!" yelled Fox.

After a nod from Krystal, they both turned around and ran back outside while looking behind them and firing their guns. They were followed outside by multiple enemies and the gunfight continued.

Meanwhile on the other side of the base, computers lined the sides of a small, dark room. The only illumination came from the lights on the monitor screens. After the door gave way, Red immediately noticed the robots inside. He recognized them from the base at Aquas; the half-Aparoids that most closely resembled the original Aparoids. They were several of these spider-like robots operating the computers, but when the door opened, they turned their attention to the red-colored fox standing outside.

"Stay back!" Red yelled as he dived at the nearest one and threw a fire-assisted punch at it, destroying it immediately.

Slippy stayed behind him as the next robot fell apart when the force of a sniper rifle went through it. The rocket launcher was slowing Red down, so he dropped it on the floor, allowing him to make a high-jump and land on another robot. When he landed, he sent out a shockwave that smashed up the fighter. About five more robots were left in the room. They all swarmed in around him, but he bent his knees a little, stuck his hands out, and spun around quickly, letting out a spiral of fire that engulfed all of them. Slippy stood there in shock…The whole fight happened way too quickly.

Red leaned against the wall on one hand and he breathed heavily. "I didn't mean to go so overboard there." He looked at the other side of the room and saw a door. "You get this door open while I recover."

"Sure, thing." Slippy ran to the nearest computer and started typing.

Red took his hand off the wall and sat down on the floor. "Do you think we should use that new bug right now?"

"I don't think so," he said while still typing, "That would shut down this entire network and if we do that, it may keep these doors locked. Anyway, I think I've got it. Just give me a minute."

Red stood up and walked back towards the entrance where he picked up the rocket launcher. By the time he got to the door again, Slippy had already solved the problem.

"Got it!" He pressed a button on the corner of the keyboard and a beep came from the door on the other side of the room. A small light next to the door turned from flashing red to green.

Fox and Krystal were being pushed farther back from the base as more and more enemies came out. "Fox, we really should've used a Landmaster!" she yelled while firing.

Fox sent a charged shot at a nearby enemy flying above them. "I don't think we have any more!" he yelled back.

Over the communicator, Falco said, "I have the air battle under control. Do you need some help?"

"Yes, please!" said Krystal.

"In that case, run!" Falco yelled as his Arwing neared the battle on the ground.

Fox and Krystal ran as far as they could from the battle and once Falco got close enough, he shot several lasers at the enemies as he sped by. After the Arwing passed, plenty of debris could be seen on the ground but most of the fighters were still coming at them.

"I think that'll do for now, Falco!" yelled Fox. The ground battle resumed as the two foxes raised their machine guns.

"Fox, how much of them do you think are gone now?" Krystal asked.

"I'd say about quarter of them."

"Yeah, we have a long way to go," Krystal said to herself as she shot another small robot with a laser.

The next room seemed to be exactly like the first one; except that there were twice as many robots to deal with. As soon as the door opened, Red immediately shot a powerful red laser from each of his hands at the nearest two. Each shot passed through two or three robots and left them useless, but then the rest started charging at Red and Slippy. Red quickly eyed each one; There were too many of them. "Stay back!" he yelled. He gave Slippy a second before he raised the rocket launcher and fired it. It was a close-ranged shot and Red was too close to the explosion. He didn't have enough time to prepare himself so he only managed to absorb part of the explosion, but the blast also destroyed the rest of the enemies.

"So you finally decided to use the rocket launcher," said Slippy.

"Yeah," Red gritted his teeth as the pain passed, "but I took some damage there. Just get this door open."

"You got it." Slippy walked over to one of the computers that wasn't destroyed by the explosion. He took longer this time to open the door. The systems from room to room changed and this one was more complex than the one in the last room. "I think this door leads to the dome," Slippy said.

Red looked back outside and estimated how long the building was. "It probably does. What can you do after I get to the next room?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I can look around this computer system for anything useful."

"So you'll gather information. That sounds okay."

Slippy was having a hard time controlling the system. "Um, Red, I can only keep this door open long enough for you to get in. Get ready."

Red picked up the rocket launcher and walked towards the door. "Open it."

Slippy started typing like crazy as the door slowly opened. Red quickly jumped through it before it halted about halfway and closed again.

The lights in this room blinded him for a few seconds. He couldn't tell where he was, but as his eyes adjusted to the illumination, he was astonished at the sight in front of him. "Dang, this won't be easy," he thought.

"This isn't good, Fox! We're being surrounded!"

The two had already taken some physical damage and were desperately shooting around in all directions to keep themselves from being overtaken.

"Sounds like you 2 need my help again," Falco said from his Arwing.

"I think so, Falco," said Fox, "Just come by again and start shooting at them-"

"-No, Fox, we're right in the middle of it. We'll get killed too."

"Then get out of the way so I can get a clear shot." said Falco.

Fox thought desperately for an idea. He could still see several coming from the base. He turned around and saw fewer enemies behind them, "Krystal, shoot that way and run!"

As they ran, they sacrificed offense for speed, so it was easier for the half-Aparoids to hit them with some cheap tackles. Still, even though they took a couple of hits, they both managed to get as far away from the base as possible while Falco flew in again and sent some charged blasts at the remaining fighters. The blasts were so close to the foxes that the resulting smoke blinded them for a few seconds.

"Wow, that was too close," said Fox. He was looking for Krystal as the smoke cleared. When he found her, he saw a surviving fighter that she didn't notice was charging at her, "Krystal, look out!" Fox was able to get to Krystal first and he pushed her out of the way, turned around, and blasted the fighter.

They both stared at each other for a few seconds, eyes wide…Krystal came back to her senses first and shot another half-Aparoid that she saw charging at Fox…"I guess that makes us even."

Fox stood there dumbstruck for a few seconds at the fact that Krystal just saved him. Once he came back to his senses, he looked at the base and saw that there were still some more fighters left to deal with.

"It looks like there are still a third of them left," said Krystal.


	19. Chapter 18: Robotic Giant

**Chapter 18: Robotic Giant**

The dome walls were metallic, just like the outside walls, and the hole in the roof was very noticeable. Inside, Red was about to confront a machine in the center spewing robots from the top of it. It really was like the giant Aparoid that was on Katina. It started shifting around now that a new threat had entered the room. Red swiftly picked up the rocket launcher, aimed, and fired. The rocket made a direct hit, but the explosion seemed to have absolutely no effect on it. Half of the newly made fighters that were spawning from the giant were now no longer leaving the dome, but targeting him instead.

"You've got to be kidding me." He ran along the outer edge of the room to avoid them, but they were fast enough to get to him anyway. Red knew that fighting them was inevitable, so he stopped, turned around, and saw several small ships flying at him. He put his hands up in front of him, concentrated his energy, and he threw his arms forward to send out a fiery blast. Most of the ships were destroyed, but a few more were still coming. He had to ignore them for now; he couldn't forget his main objective. He quickly ran towards the giant and through it's metal legs. Now that he was under it, he pointed the launcher upward and shot a rocket that hit its mark which resulted in a loud shriek. The fighters finally stopped targeting him, but instead, the giant was about to attack him directly. The legs gave way so that it started to fall. After a quick moment of panic, Red ran for it and barely avoided being crushed under the falling machine. He looked back and saw the machine getting back up. The spawning of fighters was cut in half; the giant needed the extra attention it needed to destroy Red. The fox ran to the far side of the room, turned around, and shot another rocket. Again, it hit its mark, but it still seemed to have no effect.

Slippy's voice came in over the communicator, "Hey, Red, I think I managed to hack into the robot's system."

The robot raised one of its metal legs and the tip started glowing white. One Slippy's end, the recognizable sound of a charging laser could be heard. Red put his arms up in front of him and braced himself for anything. "Can you shut it down from here?"

"I'm not sure, but I think that I can-" his words were cut off by the sound of a large blast when Red was hit with a huge laser. "Red are you okay?!"

A pause followed before Red said, "I…think…so. Ah, dang, that hurt." he got up quickly, swung his arm around, and he redirected the amount of energy he had just absorbed back at the robot. Again, the attack seemed to not do anything. It wasn't until just then when Red noticed how much pain he was in. He knew that laser burned him a little and he was probably bleeding. He still managed to say, "Sorry, you were saying?"

"Um, I can't shut it down, but I can see here that its shields are now at 89."

"89, that's it?!" Again, he heard the same sound of a charging laser. Red quickly looked up and saw that the metallic leg was gathering energy again. He aimed another rocket at that leg and shot it. Another shriek was heard as the rocket hit the metallic target. The leg was damaged, but still somewhat intact. The robot started stumbling for a few seconds then regained its balance.

"85."

"I only have half my rockets left! I don't have the firepower to take it down!" He dropped the rocket launcher on the ground and ran up to the robot. As he was running, his hands were pointed at the ground. When he got close enough, his hands sent out a heavy stream of wind that propelled him upward allowing him to perform a high-jump and grab the edge of the machine. He slowly climbed to the top and he started swinging his fists down with fiery energy trying to damage it more. The robot tried to shake him off causing Red to lose his balance and fall. Before he hit the ground, he sent a random laser blast at one of the legs. Luckily, the blast hit the one leg that was already partially damaged; now it was damaged to the point where it was virtually useless. Red absorbed his fall as he hit the ground and ran back to the rocket launcher. "What is it now?" he asked.

"80"

"That's not good. At this rate, I'll die first before it does. There has to be another way to destroy it." He tried to think for any kind of idea. He knew if he uses the rest of his rockets and exhausts the rest of his energy, it won't be enough. He himself didn't have the capacity to destroy it…but someone else did! "I have another idea, Slippy, but it's very dangerous."

Meanwhile, Fox and Krystal were picking off enemies one at a time. While Red was in the dome, they were taking control of their battle. "It looks like there are only a quarter of them left," said Fox.

"This is turning out good for us."

Suddenly, they were both hit with a sneak attack from behind that knocked them down. On the ground, Fox raised his gun and shot and destroyed their attacker which was an average ground-based enemy. It probably charged them from behind and apparently, that attack is only effective if you don't know that it's coming. As they both got up, Fox muttered, "That was a cheap shot. Are you okay, Krystal?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, but Fox, your leg."

Fox could see bloodstains on the clothes on his left leg. He looked up at Krystal who was clearly worried about him. "Don't worry about it," he said as he tried to continue shooting.

"No, Fox, you're hurt."

"I said don't-" he took a step and felt the pain and fell to the ground. He put his hand to his leg and agreed, "Ow, okay. Maybe you're right."

"Just stay here." Krystal ran ahead of him towards the base and continued the fight while Fox got up and put more pressure on his good leg while he shot at the enemies around him.

Fox could hear Red's voice coming over the communicator, "Listen everyone, I hate what I'm about to do here. Falco, do you read me?"

"I hear you loud and clear, Red!" Falco said happily. He was obviously having a good time winning his the battle.

"Do you have an bomb available right now?" Red asked.

"Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?"

"…I want you to shoot it in the dome."

"What!?" everyone else exclaimed. Everyone tried to slow down or stop what they were doing so that they could hear him better.

"I'm sorry, guys, but I can't do this by myself. The robot's shields are higher than we anticipated and it's putting up a really good fight. Shoot a bomb in the dome to weaken it or it'll eventually kill me anyway."

Krystal ran back to Fox as more enemies teamed up on her. "Red, are you sure there isn't another way-"

She was interrupted by the sound of another laser blast hit Red. "Just do it! I'm almost dead here!"

Falco was already near the dome. It seems that Falco wasn't too bothered about shooting a bomb into a dome with his friend inside. The laser cannons were pointed at the hole at the top. "I can see the thing from here, but there are too many other things blocking it."

Red looked up and saw several small fighters leaving the dome that were blocking Falco's view. He started shooting rockets at the fighters leaving the dome. "Fire it when you get the chance, Falco!"

Falco saw the rocket explosions clearing away the small flying robots and he waited until he could clearly see the giant. Once the smoke cleared, he could clearly see the giant. "I have the shot!" He quickly locked onto it and fired.

Red ran at the wall, dived, and covered his head with his hands as the bomb flew inside and exploded.

From Fox and Krystal's point of view, they could see the explosion completely destroying the dome with Red inside. Falco was flying away from the explosion to avoid any damage, but he could see what was happening on a screen on his cockpit. The room next to the dome where Slippy was took some damaged, but it didn't completely collapse like the dome itself did. After it was all over, large sections of metal that used to be part of the dome were scattered on the floor. Red slowly got up, shaking. He looked down and saw some blood collecting on the ground. From head to foot, he was in screaming pain, but he was too worn out to scream himself.

Various voices were yelling, "Red! Red! Can you hear me?! Are you okay?!" There was no reply from him. Slippy's voice said, "Are you there, Red?! The shields are now at, wow, 10!"

Red looked up, eyes half-open, at the collapsed robot that was severely damaged, but still alive. It was only producing 1 fighter per second. Red saw the damaged launcher lying on the ground in front of him. With great difficulty, he bent down and picked up the heavy weapon and saw that only 2 rockets were left. He slowly raised it and struggled to get it over his shoulder. As carefully as he could, he aimed at the remains of the robot, locked on, and pulled the trigger twice.

Slippy saw the damage decrease even more and yelled, "Red, you're still alive! It's at…Wow, 1!"

That wasn't good enough for him. He dropped the launcher, which broke when it hit the ground, and he lifted his arms, which were dripping with blood. He closed his eyes and concentrated his energy. All the force he absorbed from the recent bomb shot out of his hands and hit the robot. As the giant forever ceased to produce any more fighters, Red's eyes started to darken. He tried to keep his balance, but then realized that he couldn't stay standing up. He sat down and tried to stay awake, but he couldn't for long. Red and the robot collapsed at the same time; he had blacked out and it was destroyed.

Krystal had her machine gun out and finally took out the last three enemies. She looked up and saw only one ship in the air, which was Falco's Arwing. "I guess that means mission accomplished."

Fox was now able to limp over to her. "You did a great job, Krystal."

"Hmm, thanks Fox."

"I think your shooting skills improved quite a bit."

"Hey guys," Falco interrupted, "I hate to break this up, but I think Red's in trouble. He's still not responding."

"Let's go," said Krystal.

"Wait, Krystal, I can't keep up. My leg still hurts."

"Let me help," she said. She got Fox's left arm over her shoulder and she helped him walk over to what remained of the base.

After more computer work, Slippy stated, "I'll shut down this base for good and we can all get out of here." Slippy pulled out the improved virus and plugged it into one of the computers. He opened the correct document on the cartridge and the entire network malfunctioned. As the computers were corrupted, all of the doors in the base opened. "I wish I knew that would've worked sooner. Oh, well." Slippy took the cartridge and went through the nearest door leading to the destruction. Somewhere in all of the mess, he saw Red, passed out on the floor and bleeding. He shouted over the communicator, "I see him!"

Falco landed on top of what remained of the dome and exited his Arwing, "Wow, he's pretty messed up."

Krystal and Fox arrived next. "Thanks, Krystal," he said as took his arm off her shoulder.

"Is he alive?" Slippy asked.

Krystal closed her eyes and searched his mind for any signs of life. "He is still alive, but barely."

Fox said, "We need to get him back to the Great Fox as soon as possible."

"I'll get him to his ship," said Falco, "I sort of owe him for almost killing him with a bomb. Krystal, help Fox get to his Arwing."

"I'll come with you." said Slippy, "I'll program his ship to follow us back to the Great Fox."

Falco carried Red over his shoulder and Fox had his arm over Krystal's shoulder again as they walked back to their Arwings. Falco placed Red in the front seat of his ship. He was still unconscious. Slippy pressed a few buttons on the ship's cockpit and the screen flashed 'Autopilot'. "That should do it."

Fox and Krystal were at his Arwing. "Thanks for helping me there."

"No problem, Fox." said Krystal.

Fox smiled as he climbed into his Arwing. Everyone else got back to their Arwings and took off with Red's ship following them on autopilot. They sped off towards the Great Fox where more events would take place.


	20. Chapter 19: Hospitalized

_**[I sincerely apologize that it has been so long since I updated Red Mission. I completely forgot that I hadn't finished posting here. It's been so long since the last update, but I'm posting them now, at least.]**_

**Chapter 19: Hospitalized**

"…_Am I dead? No, it can't be! What happened?_" It was hard to stay conscious; his mind was fuzzy. "_What happened?_," he thought again, "_I can't remember._" He tried to open his eyes, but the area around him was too bright. "_What's that light? Where am I?_" As he thought over these questions, his memory slowly came into focus. "_Wait, I think I remember now. There was…an explosion, and I…think I was in the middle of it. I should be dead…but I'm not._" Once his mind started to become less blurry, he realized how much pain he was still in. "_I survived…ow, but barely. Where am I now?_"

He heard a voice in the distance, "His breathing rate is faster. He's waking up. Red, can you hear me?"

"_That voice sounds familiar, but from where?_" He tried to lift his arm, but couldn't. "He called me Red. Wait, that's my name, isn't it, but whose voice was that?" It was still hard for him to open his eyes. He turned his head away from the light. As if someone was reading his mind, the lights dimmed. His second attempt to open his eyes was easier this time.

"He's awake!" a high-pitched voice squeaked.

"_Everything's still blurry,_" he thought. Suddenly, he felt his head being shaken.

"Falco, stop that," a female voice said.

He heard another voice saying, "Fine, I just thought it would help him."

Suddenly, his vision cleared. It took him long enough, but he now remembered everything that happened. He saw 4 figures standing over his bed, and he recognized all of them. "Uh, is that you, guys?"

"We're here, Red," said Fox.

"Please don't tell me I'm in a hospital."

Falco said, "Well of course you are. You were all bloody and everything."

Red could now move his arm which had several bandages on it. Also, there was a bag of blood on the side of his bed which was slowly transferring to a needle in his arm. His whole body ached, but he tried to hide it.

"I thought we were about to lose you, but we got you here just in time," said Fox.

He covered his face with his left hand. "Was I really that bad off?"

"Yes, you were," said Krystal, "You were about to die. Even now, your condition is critical and I can tell that you're in a lot of pain right now."

He knew that she was reading his mind, but he was too tired to object. "How long was I here?"

After a pause, Fox said, "It has been over an hour. Your open wounds have been patched up and you have had some medicine for all of your burns, but the main thing now is that you're exhausted."

"Yeah, you're right."

"I think we should leave him now to rest," said Krystal.

"Thanks, guys."

As everyone walked out, Falco said back to him, "A great mission accomplished, Red. I couldn't have done that better myself, you suicidal maniac."

"Yeah thanks, I guess."

After everyone left, Red looked around the room. The walls were metal, just like the rest of the ship. On the right side of his bed, there were a couple of computers monitoring his vital functions along with the bag of blood that was slowly transferring into his system. On his left side, he saw a small table with a lamp on it. Next to the lamp he saw something which he recognized immediately. "How did that get here?" he asked himself. He thought that maybe someone was playing a cruel joke on him. He leaned over and picked up the photo of his family. "Fox must've put this here," he guessed. Red put it back on the table face-down and lied back on his bed. "This is really comfortable," he decided; and it really was if he ignored the pain. Unfortunately, that factor was what kept him awake for a while.

Fox was walking through the hallway. Many things were on his mind including Red's condition, his own condition, and the half-Aparoids, but most importantly, how this mission was going to end up. He just noticed that Krystal was walking next to him, staring at the floor with a concerned look on her face. "Is something wrong, Krystal?"

She quickly looked up, "Oh, I'm just worried, that's all. Do you think Red will be okay?"

"Sure he will," he said as convincing as possible, "We both know that he won't let some fatal accident kill him."

She smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Is your leg feeling any better?"

"I think so. I just had to get it bandaged and it'll heal in a few days."

"That's good to hear."

"You really fought a great battle out there today. I think your fighting skills are really improving. In fact, you probably killed more enemies out there than I did."

"Why thank you, Fox." She then paused for a second and said, "Wait, but didn't I kill more than you because you were hurt?"

"Eh, it was probably a combination of things." They both laughed quietly.

They stopped at Krystal's bedroom door. "Well, good night, Fox."

"Do you think we should visit Red in the morning?" Fox asked.

"That sounds like a good idea. By the way, I really should give you some dancing lessons."

He was shocked. "_Why bring that up at a time like this_," was his first though. He quickly said, "Uh, after that embarrassing night I'd rather not. Good night."

Krystal was smiling as she closed the door. As Fox walked off to his room, Krystal was now the only thing on his mind.


	21. Chapter 20: Three Orphaned Foxes

**Chapter 20: Three Orphaned Foxes**

The next morning, Red in his hospital bed was just as tired as he was the night before. The bed sheets were messed up and cluttered at the foot of his bed. He had hardly gotten any sleep last night. The lighting in the room kept him awake for a while, but when he did manage to fall asleep, he was usually awakened in minutes, usually either by nightmares or pain. He only has nightmares when he is in a critical condition and they were usually about other bad experiences. After removing the needle from his arm and patching it up, he managed to get out of bed with difficulty and got through the restroom door. He was able to put on a different change of clothes and wash most of the dried blood out of his fur. He left the restroom and sat back down on his bed, still very shaken up from yesterday. He looked over at the table and saw the piece of paper. Written on it were the words he had carried with him his whole life: 'Use your powers wisely'.

As he read these words, memories of his family flooded his mind. "I'll never forget what you taught me, Dad." He tried to lie back on his bed, but was too restless and still in pain. As he stared at the ceiling, the memories of his family were replaced with explosions. He attempted to get these thoughts out of his head, but they wouldn't leave him. Finally, the emotional and physical pains had gotten to him. He sat up and had his hands in his face and tears started to flood his eyes.

He picked the worst time for this to happen, because Fox and Krystal just walked in and saw him in this depressed state. Red heard them come in and he tried to bring himself back to normal. They were shocked at what they saw, and were speechless for a few seconds.

Red removed his hands from his face and looked away from them. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Fox looked at Krystal and said, "Maybe we picked the wrong time to be here."

He looked back at them and said, "No, it's okay. Come in."

They walked in and sat down and saw how miserable Red was.

"What happened to you?" asked Krystal.

"Nothing. I just have so many things on my mind right now."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Fox.

Red slightly turned his head away. He wondered if this was the right time to finally tell them what happened. For a long time, he had kept this secret from Star Fox. In the past, he had only told a select few who he completely trusted and hardly any of those select few had ever broken his trust. But did he trust Fox and Krystal? Well, for the entire time he was here, Star Fox mostly welcomed him and was generous…and now they had saved his life. Another thought then entered his mind: Krystal had lost her family in Cerinia and Fox lost his father; they could fully understand what he went through. So yes, it was the right time. "Is it okay if you two sit down for a minute?" he asked. "There's something I have to tell you."

"Okay, sure," Fox said concerned as he pulled up 2 chairs for Krystal and himself.

Red leaned over his bed and picked up the photo next to the lamp. "Fox, you've already seen this and I know that you told Krystal about it."

Fox wondered exactly how Red knew that, but it didn't really matter.

Red resumed, "This picture was taken about 20 years ago in Corneria City. As you probably know, this was my family." He pointed out each one in the picture, "These are my parents, my brother, my sister, and me. We were all in the Cornerian army at that time."

"At that age?" asked Fox, "You and your siblings look like you were in your teen years."

"Well, yes, but we were all very talented at flying and we graduated flight school early. As a child, I had just barely discovered my powers and no one could figure out how I had acquired them. Through those years, I was learning how to make full use of my abilities and I even got a specially made ship that could amplify my shields; similar to the ship I have today. Anyway, after flight school, we joined the Cornerian army as apprentices to our parents. We all joined a fleet of about 30 total pilots." He then paused and looked down. "And it was going well for a while…But one day about 18 years ago, there was a disturbance somewhere at the far side of the system…It seemed unimportant, so our fleet was chosen to fly out by ourselves to find out what it was…When we got there, it turned out that this…small, unimportant disturbance was actually a deadly creature." He turned away again. It was hard for him to say this last part, but when he did, he said it a bit loudly. "It was an Aparoid!"

Fox and Krystal sat there in shock, for they knew which Aparoid he was referring to. Fox struggled to say, "We heard about that incident. During the Aparoid war, Slippy's father told us that years ago, an entire fleet was taken out by a sole Aparoid."

Red turned back to them, almost in tears. "I was the only survivor. We were overpowered…I could do nothing during the battle except shield my ship from getting destroyed. That Aparoid destroyed us one by one. It killed all my friends in the fleet…I saw my family die right before my eyes! I saw each individual explosion that claimed each of my parent's lives, my brother's life, and my sister's life! After everyone else was dead and I was the only one left, I could only flee." He had his hands in his face again. His eyes started to fill with tears.

Fox and Krystal didn't know what to say. Here they were sitting with someone else who had also lost someone important to them and they didn't know what to say or how to comfort him.

After Red had calmed down a bit, he resumed, "I spent the next few months afterward drifting through the system. I could find no meaning in my life. I didn't know how to live my life or even if I should live my life."

Krystal knew what happened next. "Then you found a peaceful planet and found some hope."

"Exactly. It was a small, isolated place that hardly anyone knew about, but I was able to settle down there. After calming down, at least I was willing to return to Corneria. It was there that a small company discovered my talents; the same company I work for today. I found a suitable reason to keep living, which is to help protect the Lylat System at any cost, to save the innocent, and most importantly to keep as many as possible from going through what I had to go through…and that's the way I have lived for the past 17 years."

Fox looked at him and said, "Wow, I didn't realize."

"I'm so sorry, Red," said Krystal.

"Thanks."

Fox asked, "Should you tell the others about this?"

Red thought about it for a second and said, "Probably not. Slippy is too lighthearted and Falco is too stubborn. Besides, you 2 have gone through similar experiences and know what it's like."

"But neither of us had it as bad as you did," said Krystal.

Red turned away again with his teeth gritted and his fists clenched, overpowered by both emotional and physical pain.

Krystal couldn't stand to see him like this. "Red, maybe you should lie down."

As he did so, Krystal stood up, walked over to him, and put her hand over his head.

"What are you doing?" Red asked.

"Just try to relax." As Krystal focused her telepathy, Red's eyes closed. He started to calm down. Slowly, his pain loosened, his fists unclenched, and his face calmed. He was finally able to fall asleep. After that, Krystal started searching his mind. "He wasn't kidding," she said.

Fox stood up and walked over to her. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sensing death…destruction…and pain. His mind is troubled; always has been. That Aparoid changed the rest of his life. In the past, he sometimes isolated himself from others and he always acts emotionless…but he's not emotionless. He always keeps his emotions inside him, hidden, and every once in a while, they overpower him, just like today." She pulled back her hand. "All of that because that one Aparoid that ruined his life." Her own memories started to flood in her mind.

Fox was standing behind her and he noticed that she started shaking. Fox put a hand on her shoulder. "Krystal, are you okay?"

He was taken by surprise when she quickly turned around and embraced him, crying. "Oh, I'm sorry, Fox, but I remember when the same thing happened to me on Cerinia, including the misery and depression that followed."

Fox tried to calm her down, "I know what you mean. The same thing happened with me when my father died. It's something that no one should ever have to go through."

"I agree, Fox."

This conversation answered several questions that Fox had, but he felt bad now because Red had to answer them. Still hugging a crying Krystal, he looked over at the bed and saw Red still asleep. "I think we should go ahead and leave," he said.

"Okay, then." She let go and followed him out of the room, slightly comforted.


	22. Chapter 21: Realization

**Chapter 21: Realization**

Red spent a while recovering in the hospital room, most of the time staring out of a window, as usual. He was able to clear his mind during this time after what had happened before. He was sleeping better as he was returning to his normal state; although, he wouldn't be very fit for physical combat anytime soon.

The second day after the battle at Fichina, the Star Fox team was scheduled for another discussion with General Peppy. In the conference room, Falco was still happy because of his successful air battle. Slippy was just jittery and nervous for no reason. The two foxes were sitting together and this was the first time that Fox had seen Krystal since they visited Red. He noticed that she was quiet and looked somewhat saddened. Before the meeting started, he asked, "Are you doing okay, Krystal?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm okay. I'm just still a little upset from yesterday."

The hologram projector suddenly started up and Peppy's image appeared in front of them. "Hello, Star Fox."

"What's up?" said Falco. No one else said anything.

Peppy seemed slightly upset for some reason. "Well first of all, I want to congratulate you for your performance on Fichina. As I understand, there was a slight mishap?"

"Yes, there was," said Fox, "Red took some damage, but he's okay. He's in recovery right now."

"Okay, that's good. Well unfortunately, we have another mission for you. This all started about a week before the first attack on Corneria. Outside the orbit of Venom, we had many Cornerian satellites to keep track of any activity. To your knowledge, nothing significant has happened at Venom recently, right? Well, the thing is, in a short period of time, all of the satellites were mysteriously destroyed. This is the some of the last footage that the satellites captured." A close-up image of Venom replaced Peppy. Venom looked just as repulsive and polluted as before. "Watch what happens here." A small, bright, white-blue spot appeared at the center of the image. As the spot grew, it became apparent that it was a laser shot from Venom targeted at the satellite. The laser engulfed the entire screen, and then the image blacked out. "We received similar data from all the other satellites." More videos appeared that showed different viewpoints of Venom from different angles. In some of the videos, more than one blue laser could be seen, each one targeting a different satellite. They were all hit at about the same time."

"What does this mean?" asked Krystal.

"We don't know. Several pilots were sent to investigate, but none of them came back alive. We only have one decent piece of footage from any of those flights."

This footage came from a spaceship camera. Venom was visible in the distance. As the camera zoomed into Venom, multiple tiny, black specs could be seen grouped together. Close up, the specs would most likely be ships or fighters, but from this distance, the pilots couldn't make out exactly what they were. Then, the same blue laser was coming at them. As it neared, a voice could be heard. "Whoa, what is that?!" The laser was coming too fast. "What is th-" The image blacked out.

Peppy resumed, "For a while, we had no idea what any of this meant. At least until the half-Aparoids started attacking Corneria. The obvious theory is that Venom is their home planet; it just has to be. Otherwise, why would there be so much security on it?"

"Are you saying that we have to go there?" Slippy asked, shaking.

"Unfortunately, yes. This may prove to be the fiercest battle yet, but if successful, it may end the war. Now here's the deal: we'll send some troops to help you. Since Venom isn't posing much of a threat yet, there's no hurry; although, it would be advisable to start as soon as possible. Every day, their army is growing; at least that's what we assume."

Fox thought about this for a second, "Well, we have a slight problem. We're very far from Venom right now. We're still near Fichina and it'll take a while to get there."

"That's okay, but we need to know when you're getting there."

"We'll stop by Corneria on the way, and we'll talk about when to leave for the fight."

"That sounds like an idea. We'll prepare for your arrival, just figure out what your plan is. Peppy out."

As the hologram turned off, everyone else was left in silence until Fox eventually said, "Well, what do you think?"

"I don't know, Fox," said Slippy, "It seems to risky."

Falco said, "Yeah, we don't even know what we're up against, except for some weird looking dots and a laser that comes out of nowhere."

"We all know it's a risk," said Krystal, "but if this works out, it may be the end of them."

"Or the end of us," was Falco's statement, "and what about Red? He's in no condition to fight, but we'll need all the help we can get."

"There's no way we're letting him fight," said Fox, "He's done his part."

"All I'm saying is that we're one man short and the battle's getting tougher this time."

"We'll get it done just like we always have," said Slippy.

Falco decided to give up. "Yeah, I know. I guess there's no avoiding it. So when are we going?"

Krystal suggested, "We'll head for Corneria right now, stock up, and recover our strength. After that, we may leave a day or two afterwards."

"That's probably best," Fox agreed, "I just wish we knew exactly what we're supposed to do."

"We're supposed to blow stuff up," said Falco, "Doesn't that sound right?"

Fox laughed a little and said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"I'll go set the coordinates," said Slippy. He got up and left the room in a hurry.

"What about you, Falco?" asked Fox.

Falco shrugged. "I'll sleep; what else?" As he got up, he said, "Television should do the trick." He left the room and Fox and Krystal were the only ones left.

"Krystal, do you think we should tell Red what the plan is?"

"Sure, I guess," she said unenthusiastically.

After a pause, Fox put a hand on her shoulder and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

She looked at him and tried to act as positive as possible. "Yes, Fox, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." They both got up and left the room.

As they were walking down the hallway, Krystal asked, "Fox, do you know how Red's doing?"

"The last time I checked on him, he was still asleep. That mind trick of yours worked, I guess."

They reached the infirmary where Red was staying. He was no longer asleep, but staring at the ceiling. As they came in, he asked while still looking up, "So how'd the conference go?"

"Well, it went okay…and not so okay. We have a new mission, now, but it won't be easy." Fox explained to him about their mission on Venom.

"It sounds like we have the final battle on our hands," said Red, "So when are we starting?"

After a pause, Krystal had to break the news to him. "Actually, we made the decision that you won't be in the battle."

"What?" he asked calmly.

Fox said, "Red, in your condition, how do you expect us to let you fight?"

Red shook his head and said, "Now you know me much better than that. You can't expect me to just sit here while you fight to the death out there."

"I'm sorry," said Krystal, "We're just doing what we think is best for you."

"Well do what you have to do." He acted calm, but they could clearly sense the frustration in his voice. "If you're making that decision…go ahead. I'll just…stay here and do absolutely nothing." He slowly stood up and walked to the washroom. When he closed the door behind him, he didn't slam it too hard, but still, he closed it with a good bit of force.

"Well…that went better than I though it would," Fox said.

"You really can't expect him to take the news any better than that, especially after yesterday."

After Red washed his face, he left the washroom. Fox and Krystal were no longer there. Red looked out the window and saw Corneria in the distance. He smiled and relaxed at the sight of his home planet.


	23. Chapter 22: Corneria City

**Chapter 22: Corneria City**

"We have arrived at Corneria City," ROB announced as the Great Fox 2 safely landed just outside the city.

After the Aparoid invasion months ago and the recent attack of half-Aparoids, Corneria City was in a reconstruction period. Many buildings were still damaged, construction equipment could be seen in several areas, and the population has decreased by a lot. Most of those still living there were either part of the reconstruction or part of the government, including the Cornerian Army. Most everyone else was evacuated to allow the city to be rebuilt.

The Great Fox 2 was parked off to the side. Star Fox watched the city during the landing. The one thought on mostly everyone's mind right now was that this place has definitely seen better days, but they were confident that Corneria would soon be returned to its former glory. The one thought going through Red's mind after the landing was, "I'm home."

General Peppy was waiting for them outside. Without anyone else knowing, he boarded his Arwing in the Great Fox's hangar as soon as it landed. He knew his way around the place and he quietly found his way to the control room. He peeked in and saw everyone inside. He suddenly said in a loud voice, "It's good to see you all again!"

Everyone jumped as they were all startled by his sudden appearance. Fox was the first to respond. "General, I didn't see you there. It's good to see you too."

"Good to see you, old geezer," said Falco.

"Ignoring that, have you all decided on a day of departure?"

"We were thinking about 1 or 2 days, sir," said Slippy, "We should be ready by then."

"Excellent. I'll inform the troops. And would it be okay for some of you to come with me? We have some weapons to deliver here."

"What kind of weapons?" Slippy asked.

With a smile, Peppy answered, "Basically, we have obtained enough bombs to fill up all of your Arwings. We even managed to get our hands on some nova bombs."

"How are we supposed to get them here?" asked Fox.

"It'll just take a couple of trips in your Arwings to transport them from the city to here. In fact, if all of you come, we can get all the bombs here in one trip."

Everyone gladly agreed to come. They all went to the hangar and took off in their Arwings, leaving Red in the Great Fox alone, not that he knew. Leading the way, Peppy directed them to a plot of land on the edge of the city. There used to be several trees in this area, but now, there were several army tanks and a few machines and vehicles that were used for the reconstruction.

Also, off to the side were the bombs Peppy promised. There were 4 nova bombs and 8 smart bombs. Peppy explained, "Just take what you can get and make sure that everyone gets one nova bomb each."

As they were collecting their valuable weaponry, Slippy asked, "How did you manage to get all of these? The Cornerian army really isn't capable of producing bombs, at least not right now."

"Strangely enough, they were easier to find than you think. Most of them were just lying around space after those last battles and some of the soldiers who can't fight right now actually donated them."

"Well, we'll definitely need them," Krystal said happily.

"That's for sure," said Falco, "Nova bombs are hard to come by, but they sure do pack a punch. I can't wait to unload this on a group of half-Aparoids!"

After everyone filled their ships to full capacity, they all made their way back to the Great Fox. As everyone exited their Arwings, Peppy asked Fox, "By the way, where's this new guy that's been working with you?"

"You mean Red? He's in the infirmary right now."

"I don't think I've met him yet. I think I'll go talk to him."

As Slippy overheard this, he said, "Hey, I'll come with you."

"Yeah, I guess I'll come, too," said Falco, "What about you, Fox?"

Fox looked over at Krystal. They were both thinking of their last visit and they both looked concerned.

"Is something wrong?" asked Peppy.

"Well, not really," said Krystal, "It's just something that happened before."

"What's the worry?" asked Falco, "It couldn't have been too bad."

"You know, he's right," Fox decided, "There shouldn't be anything to worry about."

The 5 of them were walking down the hallway and Peppy had to ask, "So what exactly happened before, anyway?"

Fox hesitated to answer, "We kind of had to break it to him that he won't be in the next battle."

"Ouch," said Falco a bit sarcastically, "I bet he didn't like that."

Peppy said, "Well, from what I know, he seems like the kind of guy that never wants to quit. He seems to be a really skilled pilot, too. Who knows, maybe he can even join Star Fox. Too bad he's out of commission for a while."

Falco looked at him in surprise. "Wait a minute, join Star Fox? What gave you that idea?"

"Hmm, I never thought of that before," said Slippy, "That does sound like a good idea."

Fox thought for a second before saying, "He's too much of a loner. After working by himself for all those years, what makes you think that he'll make that decision?"

"You never know," said Peppy, "Maybe working with all of you might change his mind."

They arrived at the room. Red heard them come in as he was looking outside at the city. He turned around and said worried, "Oh, no. Please don't tell me you brought everyone this time."

Peppy stepped forward and introduced himself. "I'm General Peppy. It's good to meet you."

Red got up from his bed to shake his hand. "It's good to meet you too, sir. So what brings you in here?"

"I've heard what happened recently and I'm happy to meet anyone who risks their life for this team. You seem to be the most reckless guy I've ever met; except Falco, maybe."

"What's your point, Mr. Blow Up The Great Fox?" asked Falco.

"I wouldn't say that I'm reckless," said Red, "just risky. That sort of comes with the job, doesn't it?"

"I bet it does," said Peppy.

"Also, we wanted to see how you're feeling," said Fox.

"I'd have to say I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday, but seriously, you shouldn't worry so much. I've been in worse shape than this before." He looked back out the window. "How's the reconstruction on the city going?"

"Well you can imagine. This war is still going on and things aren't going as fast as I'd hoped."

"What do you mean?" asked Slippy, "Progress seems to be going well."

Peppy turned to him and said, "Don't forget, Slippy, the entire city was evacuated and there are too many refuges displaced from the battles. The sooner we can get citizens back here, the better."

"Well, I hope all of that goes well," said Red.

"I hope so, too," said Peppy, "I don't want to waste any more of your time. I really should get going."

"Okay, then." As everyone started leaving, Red suddenly asked, "Um, Fox, Krystal, can I talk to you?"

They stopped right in front of the door. "Um, okay then, Red," said Fox as they came back in. Everyone else left the room leaving the 3 foxes alone.

Red sat down on the bed. "Look, I'm sorry about before."

"So are we," said Krystal.

"I know that you have the best intentions in mind with that decision, but I don't want to just sit here and do nothing during the battle."

Fox said, "We know, but we just don't want you hurt even more out there. We wouldn't want to be responsible for you getting killed."

"What about all of you, though? In an Arwing, you would be almost as vulnerable as I would be out there. Just consider this: I'll try to follow that order as much as I can, but if push comes to shove, I'm not staying in here."

Fox stared at the floor and thought over it for a while. He looked at Krystal, who looked worried and said nothing. He looked back at Red and decided, "How about this then: let us start the battle. After we clear the field a bit, we'll let you make your own choice."

Krystal looked at him, shocked, "Fox, are you sure about that?"

After a long pause, Fox replied, "Yes, I think so. When the time comes, I'm sure he'll make the right decision."

"And that way," said Red, "if I perish, it will be my fault, not yours."

That comment really didn't help Krystal. She now looked more concerned about this. "Are you sure, Red? I really don't want to see you hurt any more."

"Thank you, Krystal, but don't worry. You two just keep each other out of trouble and I'll worry about myself."

"Uh, don't worry, we will," said Fox.

It took her a while, but Krystal finally agreed, "Okay, then. Well call it a plan."

"Thanks, guys," he said with a smile.


	24. Chapter 23: Departure Day

**Chapter 23: Departure Day**

Star Fox has been on Corneria City for a day now and the departure was scheduled for today. Several hours after Peppy visited the Great Fox the day before, another equally large ship had landed right next to it. Basically, the entire ship was a large aircraft carrier; the entire middle section was a hangar large enough to carry an entire fleet of space pilots under the command of one General. It was now waiting next to the Great Fox 2 for the departure.

By now, the rest of the Star Fox team and Peppy found out about Fox's decision and each of them had a different reaction to the news: Slippy was worried, Peppy was slightly upset, and Falco was actually supportive of it. Red was relieved to know that he would be allowed to fight, but he would soon have to make the decision on if he actually would fight. Of course, he considered his current state. If he messed up in combat again, especially in space, he would be done for. On the other hand, there was the risk of not being able to help his teammates if he didn't go into battle. A choice had to be made, consequences most likely would take place, no matter what the decision was; he knew this, but eventually decided on improvising during the battle. It's just like Fox said: "When the time comes, I'm sure he'll make the right decision."

"_What have I done? What's going to happen? I did what I thought was right, but at what cost?_" Fox was sitting on his bed, thinking about his decision and the upcoming battle. He's usually in this state of mind right before a huge battle. He always needs this time to calm down. If he was too nervous or unconfident, his performance would suffer during a fight. Because of his current state, he didn't notice Krystal standing at the door.

"Are you okay, Fox?"

Fox was startled and jumped up from his bed. "What? Oh, I'm okay. Just thinking, that's all."

"You're worried, I know. So am I."

Fox sat back down and asked, "Do you think I made the right choice about Red?"

"I hope so. I just can't stand to think of him deciding to fight and then dying because of it."

Fox thought for a second before saying, "You know, he did say that we really shouldn't worry about him. Maybe we should listen to him."

She walked in and sat down next to him. "Hm, I guess so. I'm actually more worried about you."

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"Your mind is racing, you're second-guessing yourself, and you're getting too nervous about all of this. Don't worry about it so much. What's done is done. All that is left is the future."

Fox smiled. "Thanks, Krystal. I'll keep my other promise to Red: if you run into trouble out there, I'll help you."

As Krystal stood up, she said, "And I'll try to do the same for you." She started to leave the room then stopped at the door. "Oh, by the way, we're about to leave for Venom."

"Thanks," Fox said as Krystal left. He was now significantly calmer than he was a few minutes ago.

In the control room, ROB and Slippy were preparing the ship for departure. After the coordinates were set and specifications were made, Slippy announced to the other ship over a communicator, "We're almost ready, everyone. Just follow us to Venom and we should get there in a few hours."

As the engines fired up, ROB said, "All specifications have been made. We are ready for takeoff."

A few seconds later, the 2 ships lifted off the ground. With the Great Fox leading the way, both ships started accelerating towards space. In the living room, Falco woke up as the ship started to shake. He felt extremely disoriented because he didn't know the ship was moving. The ships stopped shaking as they entered Cornerian space and started heading towards Venom.

"The take-off was successful," Slippy announced.

"Very good," Peppy said from the other ship.

Slippy didn't know that Peppy was there. "Where did you come from, Peppy?"

"I'm the General of the Cornerian Army. Where else do you think I would be? Anyway, we have some new information for you that may prove helpful, so another meeting needs to be arranged."

"Okay, then. I can get everyone in the conference room in a few minutes."

"That would be great."

Falco was barely awake after the take-off when all of a sudden he heard a loud, high-pitched voice come over the intercom. "Attention everyone: another meeting with Peppy will start soon. Everyone make your way to the conference room immediately." Falco started grumbling as he got off the couch.

Soon, everyone started towards conference room, including Red; minutes later, he was the first one there. Falco got there shortly after Red, but didn't take notice of him because he was still a bit groggy. Fox ran into Krystal in the hallway and they came in together. Fox took notice of Red immediately and said, "What are you doing here?!"

Red didn't even look up at him. "Come on, it's only a few hours until the battle. If they're calling a meeting this late, then it must be for a good reason."

"It better be for a good reason!" Falco said loudly.

Slippy ran in and immediately activated the hologram projector. "Okay, I'm contacting General Peppy."

A few seconds later, Peppy appeared over the projector. "Hello again."

"What is it this time?!" shouted Falco.

"Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the nest today. Anyway, there was a piece of information that I didn't reveal to you before. Very recently, several Cornerian scientists were able to design a new stealth satellite that we launched at Venom yesterday. It was able to get very close to the planet for a few minutes before it was discovered and destroyed. The info we obtained from it was, well, somewhat discouraging."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Slippy.

"What I mean is that this battle will be tougher than we thought." A video of Venom replaced Peppy. In the space around Venom, there was an entire battlefield filled with several kinds of battleships, mother ships, and small fighters that were flying everywhere. The picture zoomed back to show the entire fleet. "Also, I hate to say that there is another fleet of ships just like this located west of this one. The plan is that you all will take the eastern fleet and we'll take the western fleet."

Everyone was silent as they heard this.

Another video came up showing a close-up of 3 small, blue-colored nodes; each of them was jagged and diamond-shaped with a small, dark hole in the center. The node on the far left started glowing into a bright-blue color and the hole at the center lit up and started to glow various colors; the center looked very much like the cannon of a charging laser blaster. All of a sudden, the screen flashed blue then blacked out. "As you all can see, those nodes are what creates the deadly blue lasers. They all lie on the outer edge of the battlefield grouped together in one area, always keeping watch of what is happening outside. When they find a target, they destroy it; simple as that."

After several long seconds of silence, Fox was the first to respond, "How are we supposed to get anywhere near there without getting blasted?"

"Yeah," Falco added, "we saw what those lasers did to everything else that got near there."

"The answer is simple," said Peppy, "Once you get close enough, shoot some missiles at them."

Slippy interrupted, "But we only have one missile."

Peppy resumed, "In that case, aim directly at the group of nodes. That should take care of them and if we're lucky, some of the other fighters will be destroyed with them. After that's done with, start the attack. We'll do the same against the other fleet. I wish you all the best of luck…Good bye." Peppy's hologram disappeared, leaving Star Fox in silence.


	25. Chapter 24: Venom

**Chapter 24: Venom**

"You remember our deal, right Red?" asked Fox.

"Yes, yes, I know."

"We leave first, and you stay here until we get the battle under control."

"I already know that, Fox," said Red. Everyone was already waiting in the hangar. In the distance, Venom was only just a speck. "Don't worry about me, okay? Just do what you have to do and I'll just…improvise. When the time comes, I'll know when to leave."

"But only if you really have to leave," Fox added.

Falco was already sitting in his Arwing. "Well if you do leave, try not to die right away."

"I'll consider it," Red said.

Slippy was also in his Arwing. "ROB, can you shoot the missile from this distance?"

"Negative. We are too far away."

"You'd better get in your Arwing, Fox," said Red, "I'll try to help you during the battle from here."

"And how in the world are you supposed to do that?" asked Falco.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll assist ROB."

"I have an idea," said Krystal, "Once the nodes are taken out, you can tell us what our next target is."

"Good idea. I'll start on that." He left the hangar and went to find ROB in the control room.

Venom was no longer a spec and was now the size of a large dot.

Minutes later, Star Fox was listening over the com link. Fox was now the last one in an Arwing and Red was in the control room.

"Can you hit them from here, ROB?" asked Red.

"Negative, we will be in range in approximately 5 minutes."

"But can you get a good view of the battlefield from here?" Red asked.

"Affirmative. Here is the highest magnification." The entire battlefield was shown to everyone. Star Fox could see it on their Arwing cockpits and Red could see it on a monitor in the control room. The battlefield looked similar to the video that Peppy had shown them just hours earlier.

After getting a good look at the battlefield, Red said, "Okay, can you run a scan of the battlefield to find any additional targets?"

"I am able to, but at this exact distance, it will take between two and three minutes to get an accurate reading."

ROB started the scan. Minutes passed by and no one said a word. It was the calm before the storm and everyone was getting anxious; even Falco was starting to get a little nervous…and sleepy. Venom could now be clearly seen without difficulty and was still growing slowly as they neared. All of a sudden, ROB broke the silence, "I have completed the scan."

Falco woke up. "What was…what?"

Red explained, "I have the results for your next targets. There are many large battleships with powerful weapons." An image of 2 battleships appeared on everyone's cockpit. They both looked the same and they were about the size of the Great Fox. "Also, there are some mother ships that are producing new fighters by the minute." The image of a mother ship replaced the battleships; it slightly resembled a metallic starfish. "These two kinds of ships are your top priorities. Also, keep the smaller fighters from damaging the Great Fox."

Venom now filled a third of the view from the Great Fox. "We are now in range to launch the missile," ROB announced.

"Then do it already!" said Falco.

"I am currently targeting the nodes," ROB said. And a few seconds later…"Fire!"

The Great Fox launched the missile and it started heading towards Venom.

"Do you think that they noticed us yet?" asked Slippy.

"Will it even matter in a few seconds?" Falco asked.

The missile quickly closed the gap between the Great Fox and the battlefield. As ROB was tracking the missile, he said, "Impact in approximately 10 seconds…5 seconds…1."

The explosion could be seen from The Great Fox. From that distance, the explosion actually looked very weak, but it was actually able to create an inferno large enough to destroy all of the blue nodes. A few seconds later, Star Fox saw another seemingly small explosion somewhere left to the first one: it was the missile that Peppy's team launched.

ROB announced, "Both missiles were successful. 90% of the fleet remains."

"I assume we're not going for subtlety," said Red, "They'd have to be stupid to not notice us now. Wait a minute." He rechecked the image of the battlefield and saw several ships moving towards them. "The enemy fighters are now targeting The Great Fox. I guess they're not stupid, then."

"That's our cue to leave," said Fox.

The 4 Arwings left the hangar one-by-one and entered the fray. Laser fire on both sides immediately started as they were first met with the smaller ships. "Destroy what you can and aim for the targets," Red ordered, "One of you needs to stay behind to take out the weaker ships around The Great Fox."

"I'll do it," said Slippy.

"Are you serious?!" yelled Falco.

"Why don't you trust him, Falco?" Krystal asked. "Let him do it."

"As for the rest of you," said Red, "a nearby battleship is approaching. Whenever any of you get the chance, destroy it!"

While Slippy was targeting the nearby fighters, the rest went for the battleship. There were swarms of enemies guarding the giant ship, so the three members of Star Fox were preoccupied. Every once in a while, someone launched a bomb to clear massive groupings and each time they got a chance, they were only able to shoot a couple of shots at the battleship before getting swarmed again by enemies. Slowly, everyone's Arwings were taking damage, but eventually there were few enough fighters to challenge them and the battleship was eventually destroyed.

"Yes! That's one target down!" Falco yelled happily.

"Great job!" Red exclaimed. "How's it going on your end, Slippy?"

"Everything's under control here."

But seconds later, Red noticed a problem. "Oh, no. Slippy, behind you!" he yelled.

"What?!" Slippy's Arwing was already taking damage from the fighters behind him.

"Stay focused, Slippy. Try a U-turn, a loop, anything!"

"Okay, Red." His ship made a sharp turn and he barrel rolled as he sped past the fighters.

"Very good, Slippy, but stay alert. The Great Fox is taking damage."

"Okay, then."

"We're aiming for a mother ship, now," Fox announced.

There were not as many fighters here than at the battleship, so Falco was able to use a charged shot on the mother ship.

"The mother ship received no damage," said ROB.

"Wait a minute." Red looked at a close-up of the mother ship and immediately spotted a weakness. "Aim at the center where the fighters are coming out."

"I'll take care of it," said Falco, "You two cover me." He flew ahead of them.

Fox and Krystal started shooting at the nearby enemies. As Falco neared, he aimed at the spot on the mother ship. Once he got close enough, he shot a bomb at it. Falco did a U-turn to avoid the explosion. When it cleared up, there was only some debris left. "So what's next?" Falco asked casually.

Red announced, "80% of the fleet remains. Hold on. Something isn't right here." He zoomed in on a battleship that was marked with a 'warning' sign on his screen. It took him only a second to spot a charging weapon. "The nearest battleship is targeting the Great Fox!"

"Well let's go take it down, then," said Falco.

The 3 went off towards the battleship.

Slippy said, "Everything's still okay-"

"-Don't jinx it!" yelled Falco, "Every time you give us good news, something bad happens!"

"I'm not sure that we can destroy the battleship in time," said Fox.

"I told you, Slippy!" Falco yelled again.

"There aren't as many fighters surrounding this one," said Krystal, "We can still destroy it!"

The battleship's laser cannon pointed at The Great Fox was glowing red.

"Get rid of it!" yelled Red.

The three got as many shots at it as they could, but it was no use. The battleship's shields were only cut in half when it launched a powerful laser at the Great Fox.

"No! We're too late!" yelled Fox. Just then, he realized that Slippy was too close to the laser's path. "Get out of the way Slippy!"

"What was that?" Slippy asked.

The laser collided with the ship. Once the smoke cleared up, the ship was shaken up, but still standing.

Once Red took a few seconds to comprehend that he was okay, he asked, "What are our shields at, ROB?"

"60%" said ROB.

"That's good enough for now." He then realized how close that Slippy was to the blast. "Slippy, are you okay?"

There was no response.

"Slippy, do you read me?!"

Still no response…


	26. Chapter 25: The Decision

**Chapter 25: The Decision**

"Are you okay, Red?" Fox asked over the communicator.

Red didn't answer him.

"That's not good," said Krystal, "Slippy, what happened over there?"

"I'm not sure," said Slippy, "The Great Fox was hit and it barely missed me."

In the Great Fox, Red was looking at the radar screen. "This can't be right," he said, "The sensors show that Slippy's Arwing is still functional; so why isn't he responding?"

ROB answered, "Communications with the others have been disabled by that last hit."

"No wonder," said Red.

"Hey, Fox, I think I found the problem," said Slippy, "I think they're still okay, but the transmitter on The Great Fox was damaged."

"Well that explains it," said Fox. He shifted his attention to the same battleship that fired the laser at the Great Fox. He shot one last charged laser at the battleship and destroyed it.

"Where's the nearest target?" asked Krystal.

"I found another mother ship," said Falco, "Follow me."

"What am I supposed to do now?" asked Red.

"Perhaps you should assist them in the battle," ROB suggested.

"Not just yet. I need to have a plan. There has to be a more efficient way of winning this battle." He tried to think of any possible alternate ways of attacking the fleet. Looking at the battlefield outside, he knew that continuing the fight with brute force was a huge risk and fighting with them could end in his downfall. It was then that something else caught his attention. Sitting on top of the computer in front of him was an electronic cartridge; he recognized it as his computer virus that Slippy perfected. "Now there's an idea," he said to himself. He started to formulate a plan in his mind. It was a risky idea, but worth a shot. "ROB, what can you find out about the networking between the half-Aparoids?"

ROB started scanning the targets, "It appears that all of these enemy ships are working on the same network."

"That's interesting. Maybe, just…maybe I could somehow enter one of the battleships and inject a computer virus. That would disrupt the entire network and cause all the ships to self-destruct. Although, there is the problem of getting inside a battleship and finding the central computer, but if I did that…it might just work."

ROB said, "In theory, that might work, but if the plan does succeed, then every enemy ship out there would explode; including the one you'll be in. It is possible that you would be caught in an explosion."

"It's a risk I'll have to take."

"That plan is unadvisable."

"ROB, check the damage on the Arwings! At this rate, can they really win?!"

"They have a fair chance of winning."

"A fair chance isn't good enough. There's nothing else I can do here, so I might as well go for it."

Meanwhile at the battle, Star Fox had just destroyed another mother ship. "Another one down!" Falco yelled happily.

"How many are left?" asked Krystal.

After checking his radar, Fox said, "Uh, too many by the looks of it."

Out of nowhere, another voice came over the communicator. "Are you having any trouble?"

Slippy exclaimed, "Red, you're still okay!"

"About time you decided to join," said Falco.

Red said, "All of you listen to me. I have another plan, but you won't like it. Nearby, there's another battleship. Get rid of most of the enemies around it so that I can infiltrate it." He then explained the rest of his plan involving the virus.

After Red finished explaining his plan, Fox was too astonished. He thought that Red was just going to fight with them, not this…suicide mission. "What? That's a crazy idea. There's no way I'll let you try it."

"You're not going to talk me out of it, Fox. Either you'll help me or not. Besides, if we don't try this plan, it would be more difficult to take out the targets one at a time. Also, Pepper and his fleet may not be doing so well."

"Well count me in," said Falco.

Krystal said, "Wait, Falco, why are you…"

Red interrupted, "I'm sorry, but I'm heading for the battleship in a few seconds. Now are you going to help me or not?!"

After giving it some thought, Fox decided, "You know, Krystal, he's right. We can't convince him otherwise; we might as well try to help him."

"Oh, I guess so," said Krystal.

"Thanks, Fox."

Falco said, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go."

"What about me?" Slippy asked.

"Keep guarding the Great Fox," said Falco, "and you'd better not mess up."

The 4 ships flew towards the nearest battleship. They only targeted the fighters and not the battleship itself and their combined forces quickly destroyed most of the enemies. "I see an entrance," said Red. Again, the entrance was an escape route for the enemy fighters. "Once I'm inside, protect The Great Fox and keep yourselves alive at all costs. Also, one of you needs to warn Peppy's fleet." He raced towards the entrance. He passed through the entrance and into the battleship. "All right, I'm in. Now I'll look for the central computer."

Krystal said, "I'll inform Peppy of the situation." She turned around and headed off towards the other fleet.

While Fox and Falco resumed the battle, Red had already run into trouble. "Uh, guys, they seem to already know I'm here. Just a minute…"

Fox and Falco could hear a series of bangs and explosions over the com link.

After a few seconds, the noise stopped. "You still alive in there?" asked Falco.

"Of course I am. I just need to find a better route to the computer that doesn't require me to kill."

Krystal was nearing the other battle. "Are you there, Peppy? Are you getting this signal?"

"I can hear you, Krystal. What are you doing way over here?"

"I was sent to inform all of you. This is now a conservation mission; you must keep as many Cornerians alive as possible. Soon, a virus will infect the entire opposing fleet and destroy it. Keep your distance from the larger ships, because they will soon self-destruct."

Peppy said, "Uh, there's another problem, Krystal. We discovered the half-Aparoid home base; it's on Venom grounds near one of the oceans. That base is on a different network, so the virus will not destroy it. So once these fleets are done with, we need to head towards Venom."

"Okay then. I'll inform the others," said Krystal. She turned around and went back the way she just came.

"I hate going this way, but at least I'm avoiding the enemies." Red was crawling through what seemed to be an air duct; no enemies in sight.

"Well, whatever gets you there the fastest," said Falco.

"We're doing okay out here," said Fox.

It was then that Krystal arrived, "Fox, I told them what happened, but there's another problem." She then explained to everyone about the home base. "We'll have to go down there and destroy it once these fleets are done with."

"Sounds good to me," said Falco.

Red could only manage to say, "Crawling through this duct is so uncomfortable." His only light source was coming from a nearby vent that he was passing by. He looked through it and saw some machinery and possibly some lit-up monitor screens. "Wait…I think I found the central computer." A metallic bang was heard over the communicator as he kicked the vent open. As he got out, he said, "That's strange. There are no enemies in here." He went to one of the computers and started typing.

Slippy explained, "Red, there should be a file that contains the network."

"Okay, then…That's not it…'Documents', no…'Programs', no…Okay, I think I found it."

Slippy continued, "Copy the virus info to the network file. That should infect the entire system."

He plugged the virus into the computer. "Okay, then…Copying…Uh, 'warning' sign…" A few seconds later, the alarms in the battleship went off. "I guess it's working." He pulled out the cartridge and asked Slippy, "How long will I have to get out of here?"

"I don't know, maybe a few minutes."

"Oh, great." He ran for it. He needed to get out of there quick before the ship exploded. "Okay, that's done. Now the rest of you, get out of here!"

"What about you?" Krystal asked.

"If I make it out in time, I'll join you in the battle." As he said this, he was met with several enemies. The series of bangs and explosions resumed.

As Star Fox started to leave the battlefield, Fox asked, "And what if you don't make it out?"

Red hated to consider that. Once he finished the fight he was in, he said, "I'm sorry Fox, but if I can't make it for…whatever reason, just promise me something."

"Sure, Red," said Fox.

"Complete my mission for me. Finish off that last base and put an end to these enemies for good."

"We will, Red," said Krystal, "but please try to make it out of there!"

"I'm trying, but there are too many enemies here!"

Falco yelled, "Then go past them for crying out loud!"

The smaller fighters outside the battleship were self-destructing one at a time. All of a sudden, a large blast was heard over the communicator, "Ow, okay, all of the small half-Aparoids just self-destructed right in my face, but I'm okay."

"Red, get out of there!" yelled Fox.

Star Fox was nearing Peppy's fleet. "Is everything alright, Fox?" asked Peppy.

"Yeah, Peppy, we're okay. But Red is still over there and he could be killed at any possible second now."

The larger ships now started self-destructing.

"Are you still there, Red?" asked Slippy.

"Yes, I can see my ship from here." He hurried through the room to his fighter as fast as he possible could. As he was running, the lights went out, but he could still barely see his ship. He was finally able to get there and he opened his cockpit. Seconds later, he said, "Hey, guys, I'm at my ship, but-"

A huge explosion interrupted him.

"Red, are you still there?!" Fox yelled. A few seconds passed and all he could hear was static. Beyond all hopelessness, he asked, "Krystal, can you still sense him? Can you tell if he's still alive?"

"I…I don't know…We're too far away and…" She couldn't say anything else.

Everyone else was speechless. Fox was staring at the distant enemy fleet that was slowly destroying itself. No Cornerian fighter could be seen coming at them. "_No, he can't be dead. He can't be._" He still stared at the battlefield of fire and debris, hoping for Red's small ship to escape from it.

"This isn't possible," said Falco.

"Is he still alive?" asked Slippy

Fox looked away from the battlefield and desperately waited for Krystal to tell him that Red was alive. He slowly turned his head back towards the battlefield and still didn't see any ship. "_I don't want to accept it, but it has to be true. He would've contacted us by now._" It was then that he remembered that he had a job to finish and a promise to fulfill. "Listen to me…Let's not break our promise to him. Our next target is the enemy home base. Let's finish this…for him."


	27. Chapter 26: Home Base

**Chapter 26: Home Base**

The thick, foggy atmosphere of Venom cleared as Star Fox and the fleet of Cornerian fighters flew through the clouds. Once they got through the haze, the enemy home base was easily visible on the ground with its army surrounding it. Without Star Fox's newly acquired friend to fight with them, their spirits were dampened, but that did not mean that they wouldn't fight this battle to their fullest.

"Do any of you have any bombs left?" Fox asked his team, "All I have left is my nova bomb."

"Me, too," said Falco.

"I have one nova bomb and two regular bombs," said Slippy.

"And I have one of each," said Krystal.

"Good," said Fox, "Before we enter the battle, let's let them know we're here. We'll start off by emptying the rest of the regular bombs at the base. "

"We'll give them a wake-up call that they won't live to remember," said Krystal.

At that time, the army of half-Aparoids had already noticed them and started coming towards them.

"They know we're here!" Fox yelled, "Launch the bombs now!"

One at a time, the 3 bombs hit the center of the base. Each explosion destroyed the enemies near it, but the base itself was hardly damaged.

"Well, they know that we're here now. Should we go ahead and start the battle?" Falco asked.

"Yes, let's finish this war once and for all," said Fox.

"You heard him, soldiers," said Peppy, "Full frontal attack!"

The 5 Arwings and the numerous Cornerian fighters accelerated forward, spread out, and immediately started firing. The enemies came back with frequent rounds of lasers coming from all directions. As the members of Star Fox spread out, they all encountered different types of enemies. Fox was met with several small towers that could lock onto him and shoot lasers. Slippy dealt with several groupings of many smaller fighters that were not overpowering, but just plain annoying. Falco was busy with destroying a giant ship that had a continuous, powerful laser shooting at the ground. Krystal picked off a few missile-like crafts that would explode on contact if it was hit with anything.

Also around the entire battlefield, there were numerous blue and gray aircrafts that everyone had to deal with. Several minutes into the battle, Krystal neglected to finish off a grouping of these aircrafts and they started following her. Unfortunately, her shields were already down a bit when the aircrafts started shooting at her. She uselessly tried to evade them. Her shields were now at about 40% and still dropping steadily. "I'm being followed! Someone help me!"

Fox had already finished off the last of the towers when he heard Krystal's cries for help. "I'm coming!" he yelled. After checking his radar for where Krystal was, Fox quickly turned his Arwing around and raced off to the other side of the battlefield.

"These guys are persistent! I can't shake them!" The alarm in her Arwing started going off when her shields got down to 15%.

Fox could see her in the distance. "I just need a few more seconds," he said. He desperately reactivated the accelerator every time it stopped. "I'm almost there!"

Krystal's shields were now at 5%. "I'm not going to make it. This is it."

Fox finally got close enough to where he could use lock-on. Trying to be careful not to hit Krystal, he fired as often as he could at the enemies. At first, there were about ten, Fox estimated. He eliminated about half of them before he got close enough to start firing rapidly and easily got rid of the rest. "Are you alright, Krystal?"

She was very shaken up. Her shields were now at 2% and all she could think right now was that Fox just saved her life. "Thank you so much, Fox," she said gratefully, "I only had just a few seconds left."

"A few seconds, are you serious?"

"Yes. I barely have any shields left."

He shuddered to think what would've happened if he hadn't gotten there any sooner. He checked his shields and he had about 60% left. He decided, "I'll give you half of my shields, Krystal, and I'll stay with you until the end of the battle." He flew in front of her and left behind a silver supply ring that Krystal picked up.

"Fox, you didn't have to. Thank you so much."

"No problem," he said smiling.

Falco's voice suddenly came in. "I hate to break this up, guys, but there's this huge ship trying to kill me!"

"Let's go," said Fox.

"Right behind you."

They only had to travel a small distance to find Falco avoiding getting hit by a laser generated by a mother ship.

"How are we to kill it?" asked Krystal.

"I don't know!" Falco yelled, "How did I kill it last time?!"

Fox remembered how Falco used a bomb in the space battle to kill a mother ship. All he had left was a nova bomb, but it was too powerful; he might end up hurting Falco. Maybe a charged laser was powerful enough, he thought. He flew above the mother ship and saw the same weak spot that Falco used to kill the other mother ships. He started accelerating towards the spot and he locked onto it. As he neared, he started barrel rolling. When he was close enough, he shot the laser and barrel rolled right through the center. He came out the other side unharmed and the mother ship fell apart.

"Thanks for that, Fox," said Falco.

"How did you know that would work?" asked Krystal.

"Um, actually, I didn't," he said…"How is everyone else doing?"

"The battle is going great so far," said Peppy, "Half of the enemies are done with."

"Already?" asked Slippy, "We'll be done in no time," he said happily.

"Wait a minute," said Peppy, "I think I found a problem."

"What is it, Peppy," asked Slippy.

"Oh, no," said Peppy, "I'm detecting several missiles heading in our direction."

"Slippy, you jinxed it again!" yelled Falco, "Maybe you shouldn't talk every time you hear good news."

"It's not my fault!"

Peppy yelled, "Will you two stop it?! Listen, everyone, there are 5 missiles heading our way from five different directions. We all have to split up to destroy those missiles before they hit the battlefield. After that, find out where the missiles are coming from!"

Fox just remembered that he promised to stay with Krystal. "Uh, Peppy, do we have to split up?"

"Don't worry about it, Fox," said Krystal, "I am certainly able to intercept a missile by myself."

"Well, okay, then."

Peppy and the four members of Star Fox split up and headed towards their targets. As they all neared each one, they charged their laser cannons. It is harder coming straight at the missiles rather than coming at them from behind, but they all managed to complete the task. The 5 missiles were all detonated in 5 large explosions.

Once that was all over with, Peppy said, "Good job, everyone. Now keep flying and look for any other bases; if you find one, destroy it. To save time, when you find the base, use your nova bombs."

"Okay, General," said Fox, "Team, let's do this for Corneria! For Lylat! For Red!"

They all charged ahead while preparing to launch their bombs.

"I detect another base," said Slippy.

"I can see one, too," said Falco.

"Me, too," said Krystal.

"I think we all found one," said Peppy, "Right, Fox?"

"Yes, General. These bases seem to be smaller than the one in the center, so a nova bomb should certainly do the trick. Everyone, arm your bombs and target your base! Once you get close enough, fire!"

One by one, each of the nova bombs were launched from the Arwings. Seconds later, the five bases were destroyed in five brilliant explosions. If someone high in the sky would've looked down on the battlefield, the five explosions appeared to form five points of a pentagon.

"Best…explosion…ever!" yelled Falco.

"Very good, everyone," said Peppy, "Let's finish the battle at the main base."

They each did a U-turn and headed back to the main battle.

About a minute later, the five pilots rejoined the battle. "How's the battle going, soldiers?" asked Peppy.

One of the fighters responded, "The battle is almost won, sir. About 25% of the enemy remains."

"Excellent. Star Fox, let's finish this."

A great majority of the Cornerians had survived the battle. Helpless and confused, the remaining half-Aparoids were being destroyed little by little. After a few more minutes had passed, the last enemy ship was finally taken out. The battle was finally won and the war was just minutes away from being over.

After the battle was over, Star Fox entered the base on-foot to shut it down. All of the ground-based enemies in the base that were anywhere near of being a threat were quickly and helplessly destroyed. Once they all found the central computer, Slippy easily shut it down for good. "Well, that's the end of the base," said Slippy, "and because this is their home base, that should've also shut down any other enemy bases in the Lylat System."

"You sure about that?" asked Falco.

"I already checked," Slippy said, "All of the bases were linked to this one."

Fox said, "So I guess that's the end of the half-Aparoids."

"We all did a great job," said Krystal.

They all exited to a cheering crowd of Cornerian soldiers. Slippy and Falco were shouting triumphantly. After weeks of fighting, they all deserved a good cheer which lasted for at least a minute. Eventually, the cheering died down and everyone returned to their ships so they could finally get home.

Fox and Krystal were walking to their Arwings. "Krystal, are you okay from before?"

She smiled and said, "Thanks to you, I am. I'm sure that you kept all of your promises to Red."

"We sure did. We finished the war for him, but it's just not enough. I just wish we could've saved him."

"Fox, there was nothing more we could've done. There was no way that we could've talked him out of his plan, so all we could do was to help him. At least we still have each other."

"Uh, I guess so," he said slightly embarrassed. They had now arrived at their Arwings. In high spirits, Fox flew off in his Arwing with the rest of his team.

The whole way back, Fox was deep in thought, "_I can't believe it. We won. The mission is over. More than that, the war is over._"

After traveling through space for minutes, the Great Fox was still in good shape, but communication was still impossible; a minor setback.

Fox was the first to enter the hangar. As he docked his Arwing, he noticed something in front of him which took him a while to recognize: a smoking, broken down pile of metal in the form of a ship, just barely intact. When he finally realized what it was, a huge sense of shock came over him.


	28. Chapter 27: Victory at Last

**Chapter 27: Victory at Last**

Fox exited his Arwing and walked up to the pile of metal. "No. There's no way…That's impossible."

Krystal came into the hangar after him and saw Fox standing in front of the broken down ship. She parked her Arwing and exited. "What's the matter, Fox?"

"What's the holdup?" asked Falco.

Krystal walked up to Fox and asked, "What is it, Fox?"

"Krystal, do you realize what this is?"

Falco and Slippy were both inside the hangar and out of their Arwings, still joyful from victory.

Slippy laughed, "Hey guys, why are you two standing around that pile of scrap metal for?"

Fox slowly turned around. He had an astonished look on his face. "Don't you realize?! This is Red's ship!"

Slippy and Falco immediately stopped laughing. Once they could fully comprehend what Fox just said, they ran up to join them.

"What does this mean?" asked Slippy.

"I think it means that guy survived," said Falco, "Yep, that's his ship, alright."

Fox checked inside the cockpit and said, "He's not in there. Krystal, can you sense him?"

She paused, and then closed her eyes. "Yes, I can sense something."

"Yes?" asked Fox.

She walked away from the rest of them, her eyes opened and she started looking around. Her eyes stopped at the door that led to the inside of the ship. Slowly, she raised her hand and pointed at the door. All of a sudden, everyone else started running. Fox got to the door first and he opened it as quickly as he could. As soon as he got through the door, he stopped and everyone else ran into him.

"I was wondering when you would get back," said a familiar voice. Sure enough, sitting in a chair in front of Fox was Red and he looked about as messed up as ever. He had several bandages on, many of them wrapped around his arm and one bandage wrapped around his head; one of his arms was lying at his side and his other arm was holding his chest which was still in pain; and his fur was messed up. Basically, he was a wreck, but at least he was still alive.

By now, everyone else had gotten inside. He slowly looked up at them and smiled. "It's about time you guys got here."

Everyone was in awe. Krystal managed to say, "But…we thought you died."

"I figured you would. I am so sorry, but I had absolutely no possible way to contact you once I got back here."

"But how in the world did you survive?" asked Falco.

He put his hand on his head and closed his eyes. "At the battleship, I had just barely gotten to my ship. As soon as I got inside it, I immediately started using my shielding powers at full capacity, right before the whole battleship exploded. I managed to absorb most of the explosion, but the rest of the force directly blasted my ship from behind and forced it out into space. So basically, it was a combination of luck and a really close call."

"I don't care how you survived," said Slippy, "I'm just glad you did. We were sure you were dead."

Red grabbed the arms on the chairs and struggled to get himself up, "Well after the battleship was gone, my ship only had enough energy to make it back here to the Great Fox. Once here, I got to the infirmary as quickly as possible where my injuries were treated. And I should tell you, ROB really isn't the best doctor."

"Well he was programmed for flight assistance, not medical!" said Slippy.

"You know, you really shouldn't have pulled that stunt," said Fox, "I was afraid before that you would try something like that."

Red said, "It got the job done, didn't it. That makes it worth it enough for me."

Krystal saw in Red's mind that he was in a lot of pain. "I can't see how you're acting so calm under all of that pain you're in."

"You're right, I'm in agonizing pain right now, you just can't tell."

"You should probably get back to the hospital, then," said Fox.

"Yeah, I can show you where the painkillers are," said Falco.

"…Okay."

With that, the mission was over. The half-Aparoids were gone, Red was alive, and Star Fox now had a long break to recover and get some well-deserved rest. As soon as they got the chance, they headed back to Corneria to take it easy for a while.

It only took Red a few days to recover enough to be released from the infirmary. The company that he worked for sent him another fighter to replace the one that was damaged beyond repair during the battle. As before, he spent as much time as he could staying locked up in his room. For the next few days, he had the pleasant view of Corneria City outside his window, the one place that always reminded him of everything he fights for.

A couple days after the team got back to Corneria, a decision needed to be made. A short debate took place between the Star Fox members; the debate was short because the decision was quickly unanimous. Star Fox was satisfied with their decision and Fox would soon deliver the news to Red.

Time and peace; those were always very good remedies after the stress of a long and hard-fought war. But for a lonely red fox sitting in a dark room, he may not get enough of either, for he had just gotten a very important call about another small mission that might disturb his free time for weeks to come. He was given until tomorrow to decide on whether or not to accept the mission. As usual, he was holding the picture of his family in front of him. He was very grateful to still be alive to look at this photo. He was also grateful that the half-Aparoid war was over; he never gave it much thought, but the half-Aparoids were related to the species that destroyed his family, so he was glad that they were defeated. The sound of footsteps broke his train of thought. This time, he didn't hide the picture like he usually would, but left it on the windowsill. The door behind him opened and he could already tell who was walking in.

"Are you still in here, Red?" asked Fox.

He turned around and said, "Of course. Where else would I be?"

"I just wanted to say something. A couple hours ago, we had a short discussion and we made a decision about something." He walked up to him and held out his fist, "Red, I'm happy to tell you that you are now an honorary member of Star Fox." His fist opened to show a pin, much like the one given to Tricky on Sauria.

"Really, this is mine? Well, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Over the last few weeks, you risked your life to help us in this war. In fact, you had at least two near-death experiences with us. It's the least we could do. Also, if you want to stay around for a while, maybe we could make you a permanent member."

"You mean me as a permanent member of Star Fox?"

"Of course. We could use you on this team. We'll probably need your help to keep Falco out of trouble and honestly, we could use some extra help keeping Slippy from being killed. So what do you say?"

Red took the pin from his hand. He smiled as he looked at it. "I'll need some time to think."

"I understand. Just know that we all appreciate what you've done for us." As Fox left the room, Red was left to resolve his conflict. He thought about it for hours, thinking of the pros and cons of either decision. Would it be to continue his current lifestyle as a private mercenary or join with Star Fox? It was a hard decision, but when he eventually made his decision, he was sure it was the right one.


	29. Epilogue: Decision of a Lone Fighter

**Epilogue: Decision of a Lone Fighter**

_In the months to come, many events would occur that would lead up to another war._

Following the path that Red tried to guide them to, Fox and Krystal eventually admitted their love for each other; but as you know, it was cut short by…certain events. Ever since that last half-Aparoid battle on Venom, Fox feared for Krystal's safety. You should know what happens from there.

Also following Red's advice, Slippy left Star Fox and headed to Aquas to look for another job to better fit his technological lifestyle. It was there that he built 4 advanced, Arwing class aircrafts for himself and his friends. Also while on Aquas, Slippy met and fell in love with the pink frog named Amanda.

Almost bored to death, Falco also left Star Fox to look for a more exciting job. As you probably know, that didn't turn out so well.

A few years afterwards, Cornerian scientists discovered the origin of the half-Aparoids. The other piece of the puzzle was the Anglars. The half-Aparoids had traits belonging to both Aparoid and Anglar. The true reason behind this was never discovered.

But before any of that would happen, one more significant event took place.

It was the day after Red was informed that he was a member of Star Fox; the same day that his commander had called him and assigned him to another mission and he had to pick between the two. It took a while but eventually he made his decision.

Slippy was in the hangar, again checking the damage on the Arwings. After concluding that the Arwings were in somewhat good shape, he noticed something was wrong. There were only Arwings in the hangar! One brand-new Cornerian ship was missing!

"Oh, no! This isn't good!" Slippy rushed inside and ran to Fox's room. He didn't even knock the door before bursting in. He saw that Fox was asleep. "Fox, wake up!"

He groaned and said, "What is it, Slippy?"

Breathing heavily, he said, "Fox, I don't know why, but…I think Red's gone!"

A second passed before Fox jumped out of bed. "What?! Gone?! What do you mean?!"

"I was just in the hangar and his ship isn't there."

"Are you sure he isn't just…out for a ride?" Fox asked.

"I don't know. I sure hope so."

A couple minutes later, Fox and Slippy were in Red's room, or at least what used to be Red's room; Red and all of his belongings were no longer there.

"This can't be," said Fox, "I was sure that he would've stayed here."

"I guess that it was just false hope," said Slippy. After scanning the room, he noticed something sitting on the bed. "Hey, Fox, I found something."

"What is it?"

Slippy picked up a memory cartridge off of the bed. "It looks like the computer virus."

"He left it here?" asked Fox. "What for?"

"I don't know, but you have to tell the others about what happened while I scan the memory on this thing for any information."

While Slippy went to his room, Fox went to Krystal's room. The door was already open and the lights were off so Fox looked in and said, "Krystal, are you in here?"

"I'm in here," she said with a saddened tone in her voice.

Fox walked in and saw her looking out the window. "Um, Krystal, I have some bad news."

"I already know," she said, "I could sense Red leaving the Great Fox."

"And you didn't stop him?" Fox asked.

"I probably couldn't even if I tried. His mind was already set. You know how he is. Even though he felt bad about leaving, he felt that he had to."

Slippy took the cartridge to his room and scanned it. While he did this, he made sure that any virus on it would not infect the computer, but these precautions were unnecessary because there was no virus on it; only a sound file.

Fox guessed where he could find Falco: the living room. And sure enough, that's where he found him. Strangely enough, when Fox found him, he actually wasn't asleep, but watching the news. If it weren't for Red's disappearance, Fox would've been concerned about him for not being bored.

"Hey, Fox. How's it going?"

"_He seems strangely happy today,_" Fox thought. "Falco, something bad just happened. Red's gone."

Falco's happiness quickly turned to pure shock. "What?! Man, I was having a good day until now."

After everyone had gotten over the initial shock, Slippy explained to everyone that Red left them one, final message. They were all gathered in the conference room to hear it. Once everyone was there, Slippy played the sound clip and a familiar voice came over the speakers.

"_Hello, Star Fox. If you're listening to this, then you should already know that I am gone. I'm so sorry about this, but I had to make that decision. I got an urgent call from my commander yesterday and I had to leave. I really wanted to stay, but deep down, I knew that my current lifestyle will always be what's best for me. Do not despair and remember what I taught you, for I will never forget what you all taught me. And always remember the things that I had to learn the hard way: life is limited; none of us are immortal, so we should at least live our lives to the fullest; we all have purposes, hopes, and dreams to fulfill and goals to accomplish; and finally, don't pick a fight with a giant robot and expect to come out fully intact. I really hate to leave, but the skies are calling me. I leave here knowing that I have made some new friends during this war, so thank you everyone and good bye…_"

Everyone was silent. Eventually, Star Fox would come to respect his decision. They would learn to know that he was a soldier at heart with his priorities in order.

After a few seconds, the last words on the sound file were spoken:

"_Until next time…_"

**The End**


End file.
